History of Yonago City

The Murakawa and Oya families were traveling to Takeshima in turns, and the catch from each trip would be income for each families. However, fishing is a business which is not stable: always changes to be good or poor profits and losses. There was always the possibility of damage occurring, such as shipwrecks, and their profits and losses were therefore unequal. Mr. Abe, who acted as their middleman when they applied for the voyage license, hoping to equalize their incomes and help their fishing business to be sustainable for a long time, visited Edo (currently Tokyo) as a representative for Ichibee MURAKAWA in 1681. When Mr. Abe stayed in Edo, he consulted with two families and had the two families sign an agreement to share their benefits and risks through sharing their profits and losses. He had an organization, similar to today’s limited partnerships, work for miscellaneous affairs, then, discovered Liancourt Rocks besides Takeshima (present-day Utsuryo Island (Ulleungdo)) (Liancourt Rocks was the same as Matsushima and it was under the jurisdiction of Shimane Prefecture). Thus, the sovereignty over the both islands of Takeshima and Matsushima, both of them were uninhabited until the Genroku time (17C of Edo Period), was given to the two families; and part of their earnings from fishing became income for the shogunate and the feudal domain (text omitted)