Aomori (??? ,Aomori-shi?) is the capital
city of
Aomori Prefecture, in
Japan. The city faces the
Tsugaru Strait via
Mutsu Bay to the North and the
Hakkoda Mountains to the South. It has the biggest
seaport in the prefecture. Before the
Seikan Tunnel opened, Port Aomori connected the city via train ferry to
Hakodate in
Hokkaido, and therefore the city served as the main entrance to Honshu for passengers and cargo to and from Hokkaido.
The area has plenty of Jomon period ruins, the most famous among them being the Sannai Maruyama ruins located just southwest of the city center where the remains of a large wooden building was unearthed. This discovery would ultimately revolutionalize Japanese archeology pertaining the era.
Before the early Edo period, Aomori was a small fishing village called Uto (???? ,Uto-mura?).
As the Edo period began, Uto-mura was brought under the control of the Tsugaru samurai clan, and became part of the Tsugaru Domain (han). As the clan established the capital in Hirosaki, Uto-mura also began to develop.
