Old Routes of Japan: Tracking down Japan off the beaten path from the eyes of a Japanese native

 Let’s keep exploring Hiroshima inn town/castle town! We are getting close to the hypocenter of atomic bomb. Trams in Hiroshima city is another A-bomb survivor. Up today, there are two trains that survived the atomic bomb explosion and are still operating.  Going through an arcade street.  Hypocenter is just a step off from San’yodo/Saigoku Kaido route.  The hypocenter is above 600m of today’s Shima Internist Hospital, formerly known as Shima Hospital. Today’s Shima Internust Hospital is run by the grandson of the founder of Shima Hospital. The original hospital building was destroyed by the atomic bomb.  Crossing Motoyasu bridge. Originally named by lord Terumoto Mori in late 1500s after his uncle, Motoyasu Mori, the bridge built in 1926 survived the atomic bomb explosion. This is the closest bridge to the hypocenter. And the bridge was used until 1992 when the current bridge was built.  Now we are in the Peace Memorial Park.  The building on the left...

I wanted to complete Hiroshima inn town/castle town before 8/6, the A-bomb day of Hiroshima, or 8/15, the day of Imperial Japan’s surrender.  As you can imagine, today you will find almost no trace of old San’yodo/Saigoku Kaido highway in downtown Hiroshima. However, many pre-WWII records show what Hiroshima inn town/castle town used to be. I highly recommend to visit Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum first as they have a diorama of pre-WWII downtown Hiroshima.  Alright, here is the overview.  According to old maps, east side of Enko bridge was the beginning of Hiroshima castle town, with the guard gate. One of old maps of Hiroshima castle town is available in Hiroshima castle, and Hiroshima city published a leaflet of San’yodo/Saigoku Kaido trail map bilingually, which I posted in the end of this article.  In this small square by the bridge, there is a relief of a song by a neo-Confucian scholar Rai San’yo(1780-1832).  Here the song says: “An evening mist is bein...