神辺宿(Kannabe inn town): it looks like a hidden gem to me…

神辺宿(Kannabe inn town) is in Fukuyama city. Finally we are in Hiroshima prefecture! 

Fukuyama city is known for its beautiful fisherman’s port as well as an old cargo port, Tomonoura, which was featured in a movie “Ponyo” by Studio Ghibli. And Fukuyama castle is another one that attracts travelers. 
However, this San’yodo/Saigoku Kaido inn town doesn’t get many’s attentions. Not far from Kannabe, there are several giants of old towns including Tomo, Kurashiki, Yakage, Saijo, Takehara, Onomichi.
And unfortunately Kannabe is not a preservation district certified by any agencies or governments, or a place where has impactful well-known local products or stories such as sake in Saijo, and Japanese literatures in Onomichi. 

Anyhow, getting on the street, I found a dike with the water gate to prevent flooding. It does not look being used for a while, but I assume that this is not an old structure. 
From the drone views and street views on Youtube, Kannabe has a lot of old houses.
Kannabe did not start as an inn town of a highway. It did start as a castle town of Kannabe castle, which is a ruins today. When you do research about Kannabe area, you will find more about the castle town. 






The street view is not as beautiful as Yakage. However, it does have enough old buildings to show good old days of Kannabe inn town. 
This is the building of a private academy, Renjuku, founded by a neo-Confucian scholar Chazan Kan(1748-1827), who was from Kannabe. The academy accepted students without discriminations. So farmers studied together with merchants and samurais. 
The English version of Wikipedia wrote his name as Sazan Suga, which is wrong. 
Along Kannabe inn town, there are some restaurants and cafes. 
This is the east honjin ruins. You could miss this sign very easily. 










This stone monument is a mystery. I was able to read 岩(Rock) but I could not read the rest. 













The building on the right is a sake brewery, Tenpoichi. 
This is where lord Hideyoshi Toyotomi stayed on his way to Korean Peninsula in late 1500s. 
On this monument, there is a poem written by Chazan Kan, which says:

Kannabe inn town
In front of Mt.Koyo, there was an old castle town,
Dried-out moats, decaying inn town with bushes,
Part of veggie field is the ruins of where Hashiba(Hideyoshi) used to stay, 
Where there are several smokes is the ruins of Mori army base camp.
The street will take 90-degree turn to left soon, then turn right. 
As far as I researched, this area has a little bit more extension of old houses. 
Going further west, close to west honjin inn. 
The west honjin inn is on the right of this street view. It’s open on weekends and holidays. 
Looks like an early-1900s building.
Kannabe inn town is fairly long. From the fact that there were two honjin inns, it was a big inn town.  
Keep going south.
On the left, there is Korenji temple. It was on a different location of Kannabe, then relocated to the present place in 1623-1624. 
Toward the end of Kannabe inn town is very close to JR Kannabe station. This is the station that connects JR Fukuen line with Ibara railways. We took this route back in March from Fukuyama to Kannabe. While we were buying tickets for Ibara railways, the train operator shouted at us, “We are departing now! You can buy tickets inside the train! Just hop on now!”

The next stop is Imazu inn town. 


References: 

Chazan(Sazan) Kan. Wikipedia.com(originally in Japanese:菅茶山) https://ja.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%8F%85%E8%8C%B6%E5%B1%B1 (Accessed in 7/15/2025)

Temples in Kannabe. Fukuyama City Kannabe Historical and Folklore Museum.(In Japanese: 神辺の寺院 福山市神辺歴史民俗資料館) https://www.city.fukuyama.hiroshima.jp/site/kannabe-rekishiminzoku/3151.html (Accessed in 7/15/2025. Japanese only)

Renjuku. Wikipedia.com. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renjuku (Accessed in 7/15/2025)

Walk around the harbor of Kannabe, a post town full of cultural scents, and Shiomachi. Dive! Hiroshima. Hiroshima Tourism Association. https://dive-hiroshima.com/en/course/shukubamachi-kannabe/ (Accessed in 7/15/2025)




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