片島宿(Katashima inn town)

Katashima inn town is one of those that only history geeks will stop by. And Katashima shared a lot with Shojo inn town, located in about 2km eastward. 


When it comes to Katashima inn town, the only online resources I found were Tatsuno city website and a few including Wikipedia. 
All of them say that Shojo inn town took care of travelers going eastward, and Katashima for those traveling westward. So together with Shojo inn town, Katashima was a very busy inn town. 
I could not find out what this monument was. It appears to honor a local leader of Hirata. 頌徳碑(Shotokuhi) is a monument to honor a person who achieved something for and/or contributed to a local community. 
And there is a jizo statue next to it. 
Probably this part used to be busy during Edo period. 
There is Ryofukuji temple behind these two houses. There are very few online data about this temple. In lesser-known old routes, this is common that you won’t get good info until you get there physically. 
According to Radio Kansai’s history program in 8/18/2020, Katashima honjin main gate was transferred to Ryofukuji temple and it’s still been used. 
So, this is confusion. According to Google map, you will find two of Katashima honjin inns, and this is one of them. However, I could not find other resources to prove this was the honjin. And Katashima had only one honjin inn. Tatsuno city official website has a picture of honjin inn monument in a slightly different place, which comes up on the next picture. 
And this is where Katashima honjin used to be. You see the monument of it, which can be found on Tatsuno city official homepage. 
From my Google research, I feel like Katashima inn town has been almost forgotten. This might not be one of the most boring inn towns on Saigoku Kaido to be honest. However, it is true that when you track down local history, you will sometimes have to use your imagination to remember places that used to have good old days. 




To get to Katashima inn town, it only takes 20 minutes walk from JR Tatsuno station. So you might want to hit both Shojo and Katashima at the same time. You can walk from JR Aioi station which has Shinkansen station too. But it will be like 40-50 minutes long walk. 

The next stop is 有年宿(Une inn town). 


References. 

History of west Harima by Tadashi Yamasaki. Radio Kansai episode of 8/18/2020.(In Japanese: 山﨑整の西播磨歴史絵巻　ラジオ関西　2020年8月18日回) https://jocr.jp/raditopi/2020/08/24/81517/ (Accessed in 5/31/2025)

Katashima inn town ruin. Introduction for surrounding area of JR San’yo line Tatsuno station. Tatsuno station area urban development council.(The original title: 片島宿本陣跡　JR山陽本線竜野駅周辺紹介　竜野駅周辺地区まちづくり協議会)  https://tatsuno-saigoku.com/kanko-top/iseki/honjinato/ (Accessed in 5/31/2025)








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