板倉宿(Itakura inn town): a small, quiet inn town surrounded by super historical sites

板倉宿(Itakura inn town) is located in Kita ward of Okayama city, close to JR Kibitsu station. This area is super historical because of Kibitsu shrine and other ancient tombs, plus Bitchu-Takamatsu castle, where lord Hideyoshi Toyotomi(His last name was still Hashiba) was besieging, against Mori clan, in 1582. Then Nobunaga Oda  who was in Kyoto, was assassinated by his own vassal, Mitsuhide Akechi. Consequently Hideyoshi had to negotiate with Mori for ceasefire, then returned to Yamazaki(Do you remember Yamazaki inn town?) in a week to engage in battle.   

Of all these historical sites, Itakura inn town is probably one of the least known ones in this area. 

Coming from JR Kibitsu station side, we will pass by a small inari shrine(Sho-ichii inari daimyojin) before crossing the bridge. According to Google map, I could not find the name of the river. It looks rather like a canal. 
Then you see the sign of Itakura inn town. I wonder if houses and warehouses across the street were used for shipping from this canal by boat.  
It is a small inn town, and there used to be 70 houses including whatever inns. 
Going west. 
Although it’s a small establishment, there are fair number of old houses along the route. 
This is the sign of Itakura honjin inn. Today, the community center is standing here. 
Almost the end of Itakura inn town. By the way, if you turn right at the intersection with national R-180(a big road), the route basically coincides with 旧松山往来(old Matsuyama Ohrai) which leads to Bitchu Takahashi, known for one of 12 surviving original castles of Japan. 

The next stop is Kawabe inn town. 




 References: 

Town Guide to the History of Okayama. K22 Itakura inn town.(The original title: 岡山歴史のまちしるべ多言語版 K22宿場町板倉 岡山市) https://www.city.okayama.jp/shisei/0000027651.html (Accessed in 6/10/2025. In Japanese, Chinese and Korean)

Siege of Takamatsu. Wikipedia.com. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Takamatsu (Accessed in 6/10/2025)






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