Old Routes of Japan: Tracking down Japan off the beaten path from the eyes of a Japanese native

I wanted to complete Hiroshima inn town/castle town before 8/6, the A-bomb day of Hiroshima, or 8/15, the day of Imperial Japan’s surrender.  As you can imagine, today you will find almost no trace of old San’yodo/Saigoku Kaido highway in downtown Hiroshima. However, many pre-WWII records show what Hiroshima inn town/castle town used to be. I highly recommend to visit Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum first as they have a diorama of pre-WWII downtown Hiroshima.  Alright, here is the overview.  According to old maps, east side of Enko bridge was the beginning of Hiroshima castle town, with the guard gate. One of old maps of Hiroshima castle town is available in Hiroshima castle, and Hiroshima city published a leaflet of San’yodo/Saigoku Kaido trail map bilingually, which I posted in the end of this article.  In this small square by the bridge, there is a relief of a song by a neo-Confucian scholar Rai San’yo(1780-1832).  Here the song says: “An evening mist is bein...

I was sick, then with recovery, I decided to take summer vacation. Thank you so much for your patience.  So, in the last article, I wrote “We are finally entering Hiroshima city”. Yes, technically. But 海田市宿(Kaitaichi inn town) is located in Kaita town, not Hiroshima city. From Saijo, Aki ward of Hiroshima city comes for a while, then along with Seno river, we go through Kaita town. What is more confusing is that, then San’yodo goes on Hiroshima city - Fuchu town - Hiroshima city.  So, between Yokkaichi and Hiroshima inn town, we enter Hiroshima city x3! Google map shows Hiroshima prefectural R-274 as 安芸山陽道(Aki-San’yodo), which is substantially the same as pre-modern San’yodo or Saigoku Kaido.  Here is the overview.  When I looked at one of old maps on a local information board, the beginning of Kaitaichi inn town is around here. The road is narrowed here, which could indicate that there was a gate.  The structure that I circled blue reminds me of a Buddhist temp...

四日市宿(Yokkaichi inn town) should not be confused with Yokkaichi city in Mie prefecture. Yokkaichi means “the fourth-day market”, literally there used to be a market in the fourth day of the month. However, for many, this town has been known as 西条(Saijo). Saijo has the nickname as “the Sake capital”. In fact, Saijo is referred to as one of three great places of sake brewing, along with Nada(Kobe) and Fushimi(Kyoto).  A local magazine posted a map of Yokkaichi inn town recently, which made me easier to spot the beginning and the end of the inn town. So let’s find out!  The inn town begins with the small brook called Furukawa river. It will be more clear on the next picture.  Furukawa runs from north to south here. According to Google map, some parts of the river are covered with concrete. In other parts, it is very hard to find out if it’s a river or a gutter. But this is officially the beginning of the inn town.  On the street view, both sides of the buildings are of K...