As the best place for building a fishing port was often a cove surrounded by coastal mountains, in some fishing villages which lost a contest for ownership of flatlands far from fishing ports, Tanada was made in the mountain near the port for the purpose of securing the fisherfolk's staple food, both in eastern and western Japan.
なお、東日本・西日本に関わらず、漁港の適地が海沿いの山に囲まれた入り江であることも多かったため、漁港から離れた平地の所有権争いに敗れた漁村では、漁港近くの山に漁民の主食用の棚田がつくられる例がみられる。