有年宿(Une inn town): the last inn town before entering Okayama prefecture

We are continuing on San’yodo/Saigoku Kaido inn towns with very little online information. And here we are at the last inn town of Hyogo prefecture, Une(pronounced as “Oo-neh” inn town. 
Near this area, medieval and ancient San’yodo were made further north. So Une inn town was established presumably in 1600s. 

Without solid resources, it is difficult to figure out where the east edge of Une inn town was. I am simply assuming that right after the bridge over Chikusa river was the east end of the inn town. 
At its peak, Une had nearly 100 establishments including honjin inn, wakihonjin inn, hatago business hotels etc. 
This sign says there used to be Une village administration office. 
According to Wikipedia, Une village was merged with Ako city in 1955. 





Une honjin VIP inn site is coming up. For me, the shape of veggie field just beneath the red circle I made looks like where a big mansion or major structures of honjin used to be. I would love to visit a local museum to find out. 
Here is the sign that shows how to get to honjin monument site. 
This is where 番所(Bansho) used to be located. Bansho is a security officers office to provide guards to keep an eye on travelers. Bansho was established in inn towns and major cities. One website says that Bansho was the same as mitsuke gate guards, but as you noticed from Tokaido series that mitsuke was located in both east and west edges of an inn town, so my question for scholars is, were Banshos located on both ends or only one? So far I only saw one bansho per one inn town. 
A sign with more detailed descriptions about Une inn town. According to this sign, the reason why Une inn town disappeared was multiple flooding from Chikusa river, which made very difficult to restore the town. 
And it looks like the town ends at the 90-degree right curve on the map(from the overview map).

This Hachiman shrine has a monument to honor an imperial army general Toshitane Matsukawa(1859-1928), who was the second commander-in-chief of the imperial army during Russo-Japanese war(1904-1905). The monument also has the name of Meiji emperor. I couldn’t find anything about them in connection with Une online. I assume that Gen.Matsukawa accompanied with Meiji emperor for his journey and stopped by Une. Leave comments if you know any details. Up in the midst of the mountain, there is a lighthouse for 高瀬舟(Takasebune), which is a type of a cargo boat during Edo period. Further up on the mountain, there is Une castle ruins. 

JR San’yodo line Une station is very convenient to get to Une inn town. This is the last inn town of San’yodo/Saigoku Kaido highway in Hyogo prefecture. 
The next stop is Mitsuishi inn town, in Okayama prefecture.

References: 

History of west Harima by Tadashi Yamasaki. Radio Kansai episode of 7/12/2020.(In Japanese: 山﨑整の西播磨歴史絵巻　ラジオ関西　2020年7月12日回)  https://jocr.jp/yamajiro/20200712083000/ (Accessed in 6/1/2025)

Toshitane Matsukawa. Wikipedia.com. (The original title: 松川敏胤　ウィキペディア) https://ja.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%9D%BE%E5%B7%9D%E6%95%8F%E8%83%A4 (Accessed in 6/1/2025)





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Off the beaten paths in Japan: how I find these places

  I created this blog, hoping to build a bridge between Japan and others, Japanese and other people, whether travel or work or study.  I have read and seen blogs and videos of the same topic. So I have to creative, because otherwise it will be one of these blogs. And it can be very boring.  For those who don’t know me, I am Japanese, born and grew up in central Japan, living in northeastern USA. My wife is an American. And I am a nurse in Japan and the US.(I guess there aren’t many Japanese male nurses working outside Japan). We have 2 kids. We are homeschooling.  I have weird academic degrees: associate degree in nursing, bachelor in German, master in cross-cultural education.  And my tendency is that, when everybody goes on one direction, I go to the other direction.  Anyhow, from these background, I am figuring out what I can do and what I can offer.  I consider the foundation of my Japan travel is central Japan, specifically Aichi, Gifu, Mie, south...
Read more

Introducing old road network:KAIDO

Before traveling to Japan, it’s always good to do research about destination. Good research is the foundation of your enriched travel. However, for those who have never been to Japan, there is always the question of “Where do we start?”.  This is one of the tools I am giving you. One of things I often look for is the signs of 街道(Kaidō).  Kaidō is old highways and routes that have been used for centuries. Kaidō used to be all over, from Edo(modern-day Tokyo) to Kyoto(Tokaido and Nakasendo), to Shomosuwa(Kōshū Kaidō), to Nikko(Nikko Kaidō), to Shirakawa(modern-day Shirakawa city of Fukushima prefecture: Oshu Kaidō), and so on. These first five routes I mentioned are called Edo Five Routes, aka 五街道(Gokaido). These were officially maintained by Edo shogunate during Edo Period(1603-1868).  Here is an example of Kaido route. These bypass following link shows the route of Tokaido highway.  https://www.hiroshige.org.uk/Tokaido_Versions/Tokaido_Versions.htm  (Quoted from...
Read more

Starting the Kaido 101: Tokaido/Nakasendo-Nihonbashi(日本橋)

Image
 I wonder how many of my readers thought how long this guy’s lecture will continue.  As a visual learner, I would prefer to get the basic quickly, then as I practice, I want to go in depth.  One of the most popular trails of Kaidos is probably Tokaido. Some might say Nakasendo is arguably the best. But historically Tokaido has been a top traffic route, probably “the busiest” one. It is hard to figure out data of Edo period. One research shows that 40,000-260,000 people used parts of Tokaido, while  most parts of Nakasendo hardly reached more than 50,000 travelers. (Resource: “Main routes traffic amount n Edo period” by Ryoichi Tsuchida. 1982. 土田良一著「江戸時代における街道交通量」歴史地理学通号117  歴史地理学会編　1982年6月発行   http://hist-geo.jp/img/archive/117_028.pdf ) Today, “Tokaido” Shinkansen is often referred to as “The Aorta of Japan.  The Tokaido route consists of 53 stations(inn towns), from Edo(Tokyo) to Kyoto. Some would add 4 more stations(inn towns between Kyoto and Osaka...
Read more