During the Edo period, cotton cultivation began on reclaimed land in Kurashiki City, Okayama Prefecture, as a crop that was tolerant of salt. It developed by using herring meal brought from Hokkaido by Kitamaebune ships as fertilizer, leading to the current Kurashiki denim.

Meanwhile, three "basho" (trading posts) called Otarunai, Takashima, and Rashorō were established on the coast around Otaru, where vassals of the Matsumae domain traded with the Ainu people. Later, when merchants began a "basho contract system," herring fishing became popular, employing the Ainu people and migrant fishermen from southern Hokkaido. Much of the herring catch was used as fertilizer (shimekasu), and was transported by Kitamae ships to various places, including the Hokuriku region, the Setouchi region, and Osaka.

Towards the end of the Edo period, the center of herring fishing shifted to Shiribeshi, and Takashima Rashorō became a fishing ground so large that it was called the "Sengoku Basho," and many migrant Japanese began to live on the coast of Otaru.

Around 1897, Otaru alone recorded a catch of approximately 90,000 tons, and the prosperity of the area can be seen from the guardhouses and stone storehouses that still remain today.

Behind each piece of denim lives a story of the sea and the land, of herring caught in the seas of Otaru and the Kitamae ships that connected them to the cotton fields of Kurashiki.

OTARU WORKER WEAR "NAKASHI"
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OTARU WORKER WEAR "NAKASHI"
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