Shimohei

Shimohei lies on the Sanriku coast of Mutsu, where wooded mountains descend to Miyako Bay. Under the Tokugawa shogunate, Morioka domain chose Miyako as a port for trade with Edo. Roads carried goods and seafood between the port and Morioka, and merchants known as isabashū took part in this traffic. The sheltered bay gave ships a foothold along a coast deeply divided by headlands and inlets.