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地御前(Jigozen) - 宮島(Miyajima): parallel world

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As mentioned in previous article, We are stepping a bit away from San’yodo/Saigoku Kaido highway. Since this is still relevant to San’yodo/Saigoku Kaido highway, I will touch this area but I‘m not deep diving. Instead, I am posting links so you guys can deep dive later.  So, from Hatsukaichi inn town, there seems to have had two ways at least in southward: San’yodo/Saigoku Kaido, and Jigozen Sando(地御前参道: Sando means an approach to a sacred places). There was another highway called 津和野街道(Tsuwano Kaido highway) but I am not going to touch this in this article.  When we talk about Jigozen, Jigozen cannot be separated from Itsukushima island. Itsukushima is a Workd Heritage site, where flocks of travelers visit in order to see its floating shrine, Itsukushima shrine. The entire island is also called Miyajima, which means the island of shrine. Today, Miyajima town belongs to Hatsukaichi city. We will tackle why these two shrines are related later.  I saw this sign that points ...
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廿日市宿(Hatsukaichi inn town): burned during a civil war

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Hatsukaichi(廿日市) means “the market of the twentieth of the month”. Namely, there used to be a market in the twentieth of every month.  Today, there are very few things that remind us of old good Hatsukaichi inn town. The inn town suffered from a devastating fire during Second Choshu Expedition in 1866. The fire was set by Choshu domain army(Today’s Yamaguchi prefecture), in order to prevent Tokugawa shogunate army from marching westward, or at least slow them down.  We barely see what good old Hatsukaichi inn town used to be.  When I cannot figure out where the inn town began, I usually pick up a starting point at random, by how roads are curving or narrowing down.  Sometimes local guide maps available online has indications and hints.  There are a couple of places on east side of this inn town that can be an indicator of the east side of inn town gate. From Google map and its street views, the road is narrower after this intersection than prior to the intersect...
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島田宿大井川川越(Shimada inn town Oi River crossing): You could’ve gotten stuck by this river bank for days and weeks 150 years ago

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Even horses can cross eight ri(=31 km/19.5miles) of Hakone, but the Oi River is hard to get over in any way. (Translation from Wikipedia. I added the conversion to mileage)  This part of Shimada is probably considered as an extension of Shimada inn town. However, there is no accommodation. When the water level of Oi river increases to the impassable point, people had to stay in this area, along with Shimada inn town.  As we explore, I will explain the reason why it was so hard to cross this river.  This is Tsukamoto family residence. The residence was built by Omura domain of Kyushu, today’s central Nagasaki prefecture during Edo period. Tsukamoto family provided meals, took over paperwork and arranged logistics to cross the river for Omura domain.  Up until 1870, there were no bridges or boat services over Oi River.  On the right there used to be the 9th station for 川越人足(Kawagoshi ninsoku: special porters for crossing rivers). There used to 10 Kawagoe ninsoku, ...
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