Goods were exchanged in town squares located nationwide, from the capital to local cities. Traders set up stalls and buyers browsed the merchandise. Markets are often temporary, with stalls only present every five days (itsuka-ichi), every ten days (toka-ichi), every twenty days (hatsuka-ichi) and so on. Tsuba-ichi and Karu-ichi marketplaces in the Yamato Province were famous for their long history.

In many cases, a market was set up in an open area, where market stalls were set out for trading. In addition to traders and buyers, street performers came and showed entertainment to collect money from the audience. There was an utagaki, where young men and women gathered to sing, dance, eat, recite a poetry, leading into much free sexual activity. Even an execution site was in some cases built for public execution of condemned criminals.

East and west marketplaces were set up in the capital under the government's administration. Those markets played an important role for national economic activities. There were big canals for transportation of supplies into the market stalls and government warehouses. They traded foods including rice, grains, vegetables, fruits, seaweeds, fish and seasonings, silk, cotton and hemp yarn, tailored clothes, chinaware, wooden dishes, iron-made tools and weapons, accessories like combs and gems, paper, writing brushes, cows, horses and even slaves. They were priced officially by the market officials.