In an era before Mitarai had residential houses or even a port, there was reportedly a military base used by a pirate-like group known as the Murakami Navy. This place may have been that very site. Mitarai has always bordered the Hiroshima and Ehime prefectures, making it a strategically crucial site that invited incessant conflict with pirates, with territories constantly changing hands. Some people say that is why the watchtowers were built.
Another unconfirmed theory states that the stone walls here were built during the Sengoku Period by Kiyomasa Katō, a vassal of Shogun Toyotomi Hideyoshi, when they invaded Shikoku. Nevertheless, it is evident that this was once a coastline before the land reclamation efforts advanced and before Mitarai’s port was built. If you look out to the sea from here, you will spot a large camphor tree said to be 350 years old. If this is true, that places the tree’s planting at around the start of construction on Mitarai’s port. Although no one will know the real history, that camphor tree might be the sole witness to Mitarai’s port town history.
