Kuba inn town is located in Otake city, and the last inn town of San’yodo/Saigoku Kaido highway in Hiroshima prefecture section(technically).
This time, Otake city historical society(大竹市歴史研究会) has a great website including an old map of Kuba inn town. I am posting this link on the reference section.
Before entering Kuba inn town, there is a stone-paved road in Narukawa area. It was paved in early 1630s. This is one of places you can still see what old San’yodo/Saigoku Kaido used to look like. Note that according to Otake city, the trail after this paved road over the hill is closed.
Entering Kuba inn town.
Today JR San’yo line goes through the tunnel. The San’yodo/Saigoku Kaido route used to go over the tunnel.
Looking at the tunnel, which was built during Meiji era(late 1800s).
Before the tunnel was built, this section was very steep, and it was named as 馬ためし坂(Umatameshizaka: the slope of testing horses). As the name tells us, horses seem to have had hard time ascending and descending the slope.
The red point mark shows 玖波の延命地蔵(Kuba no enmei jizo: Kuba’s jizo statue of prolonging life). People prayed for healing ear diseases with this statue.
Now Kuba is somewhat like what an inn town used to look like.
Kuba also suffered from 1866 Second Choshu expedition, which burned significant part of the inn town. Old houses were seen today were built after 1866 war.
More old houses.
On the right, you will see where 高札場(Kosatsuba) information board used to be.
Next to Kosatsuba, theee is Kadoya Tsurii(角屋釣井). This is one of four public wells of Kuba inn town. And the water was used for drinking and other necessities. So people gathered and the well became a place for people to exchange information and for horses to get water.
Before going straight on the route, let’s take a look at one block behind the inn town. According to an old map, one block north from the main route was also a part of the inn town. At the corner on the street view, there is Junkoji temple, which I couldn’t find any info from anywhere online. There is Inari shrine inside the temple.
This backroad section still has old houses built in late 1800s-early 1900s(after The Second Choshu Expedition war).
The blue circle on the street view shows the monument of a mineralogist Shogo Nagaoka(1901-1973), who founded Hiroshima Peace Museum. He was born in Hawaii under Japanese immigrants. His family moved back to Kuba with him, and he spent his childhood in Kuba.
Although most of the original houses and buildings were burned, we can still see a little bit of what old Kuba inn town used to look like.
Kuba honjin ruins used to be located beyond this wall. According to Otake City Historical Society homepage, the original honjin building was burned during 1866 war. This honjin was also known as Koryokan(洪量館), named by a Hiroshima-local Confucian scholar Sadayoshi Fukuyama(late Edo period).
San’yodo/Saigoku Kaido goes northwestward from the intersection at the honjin inn, but there is an extension of Kuba inn town stretching southwestward.
The house on the left, which is partially cut off on the image, preserves Udatsu antifire wall structure.
Where I colored yellow was the extension of the inn town.
So the main route goes northwestward.
This shape if road is typical in many inn towns for defense, in order to slow down enemies.
San’yodo/Saigoku Kaido route crosses JR San’yodo line.
Going a little further.
Behind this house, there is a temple.
This is Shomyoji temple, a Pure Land Buddhism temple(浄土宗:Jodoshu), established in 1537. Its bell was made in 1681.
Kuba inn town continues a bit more, but we are moving to the next.
JR San’yo line Kuba station is close to the extension part, but to the honjin, it shouldn’t take longer than 5-minutes’ walk.
The next inn town is Sekido, in Yamaguchi prefecture. However, there is one ainoshuku, an “unofficial inn town” and another town of crossing a river before Sekido. So we are hitting 小方(Ogata) unofficial inn town and 木津(Kizu) river crossing site.
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