 Lapérouse gives a very detailed description of his relations with these people in his work "Voyage de Laperouse Autour du Monde", published in 1797.Modern Tomari was founded in 1870.Along with the rest of the southern portion of Sakhalin, it was placed under Japanese control by the Treaty of Portsmouth in 1905 and remained so until 1945, during which time it bore the name of , derived from an Ainu term meaning "on the bay".