The currents of the Seto Inland Sea reverse at Tomonoura, located at the tip of the Numakuma Peninsula. In the days when coastal navigation was dominated by sailing ships, visitors had to wait for the currents to change at Tomonoura. Fukuyama, known as the ‘port of waiting tides’, saw merchant ships carrying goods from as far away as Hokkaido and Hokuriku come and go. During the Edo period, it became a cosmopolitan city, with the Korean envoys and the chief of the Dutch trading house making port visits. Fukuyama was thus a place that connected the Seto Inland Sea from east to west and also a place of exchange between Japan and the rest of the world.