Bizen city is known for one of ancient ceramic towns of Japan. I’m from Aichi prefecture, with two ancient ceramic towns including Seto and Tokoname, and I am proud of these towns. However, during my high school years, my school chose Okayama for a school trip. I was fascinated by the colors of Bizen-yaki ceramic. I bought one for mom.
However, Katakami was rather known for an old Edo-time cargo ship port. For Bizen-yaki ceramic lovers, wait for the next stop.
Alright. Here is the overview of Katakami inn town, another inn town with very scarce online info.
If you want to start the trail from the eastern edge, JR Bizen-Katakami is the best. Otherwise JR Nishikatakami station is located at the center of downtown.
I am not sure if this is within the inn town or not.
This is where Shinju Fujiwara(1921-1984) used to live in his childhood. He was a novelist. But until I googled, I didn’t know anything about him.
And there is a shrine and a Nichiren-Buddhism temple called Hokyoji. Hokyoji was established in 1352 and lord Toyotomi Hideyoshi stopped by and stayed.
The intersection from another angle. Does that look like Madugata(Square shape)? If so, Kyoto-side mitsuke guard gate wouldn’ve been here. There is another place that I suspects of Kyoto-side mitsuke. It’ll come up soon.
This part looks like an inn town, but throughout San’yodo/Saigoku Kaido route, there are plenty of places like that.
This is the fate of Usa-hachiman shrine, established in 1336 by lord Takauji Ashikaga after the victory of the battle of Tatara beach in 1336 over emperor Godaigo side of the army.
At the center of picture, there is a sing of Katakami inn town. Let’s move on to the next picture.
So this is where I think the east end/mitsuke guard gate used to be. The biggest reason is that the east side of the road(toward the bottom of the street view) is wider while the downtown side is narrower, which indicates Masugata square was here. This could’ve been the east side of the gate.
Google map does not indicate anything about this shrine. By the way, late I realized that the road that goes northward from Saigoku Kaido right before this shrine is called Tsuyama Kaido. Tsuyama Kaido is usually known for connecting Okayama city with Tsuyama city. So I am curious to know more about this route.
Another thing I learned later was that this Tsuyama Kaido has a parallel road which used to be a train track of Katakami railways. Now the former train track has become a cycling course.
This is a monument to who where a skillful sword smith Bishu Sukedaka used to live. I couldn’t find a good resources about him, but I am sure that sword geeks know.
A monument of Shiga(maybe Shika) family. Again, I could not find any resources online.
万代常関(Mandai or Mozu Jokan) used to live here. He was a physician and a pharmacist who developed a medicine for stomach ache, and established sales system of medicine. His method was brought to today’s Toyama prefecture, which became the foundation of pharmaceutical industry in Toyama today.
So Meiji emperor stopped by. He traveled long journey.
Ebisuya used to own a shipping agency, and later owned an inn as well. Their inn is still operating.
This is where wakihonjin was located. By the way, where was honjin inn?
So I found the Katakami honjin monument.
Here we turn right to northwestward. This might have been the west side of mitsuke, but I need a reference.
I would think this is outside Katakami inn town.
Lastly, I found a bunch of signs and probably a tombstones. One of them is Tetsuzo Maeda, the primary doctor of a chief retainers of Okayama domain during Edo period.
The next stop is Fujii inn town. However, there are a couple of places we should stop by before getting to Fujii.
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