Tosa Province (modern Kochi) and Awa Province (modern Tokushima) in southern Shikoku functioned as Nankaido (South Sea Road) exile destinations in classical Japan. Tosa, isolated by mountains and the Pacific, was designated a “distant exile” site under the Ritsuryo system. Most notably, Emperor Tsuchimikado requested his own exile to Tosa in 1221 in solidarity with his exiled father and brother — but Tosa was deemed too harsh and he was transferred to Awa, where he died at age 35 in 1231. Earlier, in 1160, Minamoto no Mareyoshi (younger brother of Yoritomo) was exiled here, only to be killed by Taira partisans before he could join Yoritomo’s 1180 uprising. Later, the Shikoku 88 Pilgrimage developed in this same region, and the memory of exiled pilgrims and confined criminals intertwine in the mountain landscape.