Shari

Shari lies on the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk near the Shiretoko Peninsula. Its name comes from an Ainu word for a place where reeds grow. In 1789 the local Ainu asked the Matsumae domain to send an official trading ship, and the Shari trading district was established the following year. In 1807 the Tsugaru domain sent more than a hundred men to guard the coast; poorly supplied for the northern winter, many died of illness.