{{short description, Oldest international port in Japan Suminoe no Tsu (住吉津) is the oldest international port in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. Said to be opened by

Emperor Nintoku , also known as was the 16th Emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Due to his reputation for goodness derived from depictions in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, he is sometimes referred to as the . While his existence ...

, Suminoe no Tsu was located on an inlet called ''Suminoe no Hosoe'' on the southern side of Sumiyoshi Grand Shrine, in the south of current day

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...

city. Hosoigawa station of the

Hankai Tramway is a company which owns two tramway lines in the cities of Osaka and Sakai, Osaka, Japan. The parent company is Nankai Electric Railway Co., Ltd. Lines Current *Hankai Line (Ebisucho - Hamadera eki-mae) 14.1 km * Uemachi Line (Tennoji ek ...

is located on the former site of the port. East of Suminoe no Tsu is Japan's ancient capital,

Asuka Asuka may refer to: People * Asuka (name), a list of people * Asuka (wrestler), professional wrestler * Asuka (wrestler, born 1998), professional wrestler also known as Veny outside of Japan Places In Japan * , an area in Yamato Province (now ...

, in

Nara Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Nara Prefecture has a population of 1,321,805 and has a geographic area of . Nara Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the north, Osaka Prefecture to the northwest, Wakayama P ...

. In ancient times, Suminoe no Tsu was Japan's entrance into the

Silk Road The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and reli ...

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

also entered Japan here. Japan's envoys to the Sui and T'ang dynasties of

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

received divine protection from ''Sumiyoshi Daijin'', the god of the sea, at Sumiyoshi Grand Shrine, before departing. ''One-Inch Boy'' from the fairy tail

Issun-bōshi is the subject of a fairy tale from Japan. This story can be found in the old Japanese illustrated book '' Otogizōshi''. Similar central figures and themes are known elsewhere in the world, as in the tradition of Tom Thumb in English folklore. ...

also departs from Suminoe no Hosoe. He heads into ''Suminoe no Kai'' (present day

Osaka Bay Osaka Bay (大阪湾 ''Ōsaka-wan'' ) is a bay in western Japan. As an eastern part of the Seto Inland Sea, it is separated from the Pacific Ocean by the Kii Channel and from the neighbor western part of the Inland Sea by the Akashi Strait. ...

) then over to the

Yodogawa River The , also called the Seta River (瀬田川 ''Seta-gawa'') and the Uji River (宇治川 ''Uji-gawa'') at portions of its route, is the principal river in Osaka Prefecture on Honshu, Japan. The source of the river is Lake Biwa in Shiga Prefect ...

and up towards

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

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