Sawata

Sawata lies on Sado Island in the Sea of Japan. In the medieval period branches of the Honma family held lands in several parts of Sado, including Kawarada in the Sawata area and Sawata in the neighbouring Mano area. Their authority developed within a landscape of local estates and rival warrior families. In the early eighteenth century, the village headman Honma Taroemon, from Yamada in Sawata district, worked with another headman to clear land along the Kokufu River under the encouragement of the Sado magistrate. The resulting settlement was called Tatsumi. These local histories sit alongside the wider island's early modern mining economy, while farming and coastal connections remained important to its communities.