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

As mentioned in previous article, We are stepping a bit away from San’yodo/Saigoku Kaido highway. Since this is still relevant to San’yodo/Saigoku Kaido highway, I will touch this area but I‘m not deep diving. Instead, I am posting links so you guys can deep dive later.  So, from Hatsukaichi inn town, there seems to have had two ways at least in southward: San’yodo/Saigoku Kaido, and Jigozen Sando(地御前参道: Sando means an approach to a sacred places). There was another highway called 津和野街道(Tsuwano Kaido highway) but I am not going to touch this in this article.  When we talk about Jigozen, Jigozen cannot be separated from Itsukushima island. Itsukushima is a Workd Heritage site, where flocks of travelers visit in order to see its floating shrine, Itsukushima shrine. The entire island is also called Miyajima, which means the island of shrine. Today, Miyajima town belongs to Hatsukaichi city. We will tackle why these two shrines are related later.  I saw this sign that points ...

Hatsukaichi(廿日市) means “the market of the twentieth of the month”. Namely, there used to be a market in the twentieth of every month.  Today, there are very few things that remind us of old good Hatsukaichi inn town. The inn town suffered from a devastating fire during Second Choshu Expedition in 1866. The fire was set by Choshu domain army(Today’s Yamaguchi prefecture), in order to prevent Tokugawa shogunate army from marching westward, or at least slow them down.  We barely see what good old Hatsukaichi inn town used to be.  When I cannot figure out where the inn town began, I usually pick up a starting point at random, by how roads are curving or narrowing down.  Sometimes local guide maps available online has indications and hints.  There are a couple of places on east side of this inn town that can be an indicator of the east side of inn town gate. From Google map and its street views, the road is narrower after this intersection than prior to the intersect...

Kusatsu is another unofficial inn town of San’yodo/Saigoku Kaido highway.  While the city center of Hiroshima is as completely wiped out by the atomic bomb, most part of Kusatsu survived with minor to moderate damages. This is the reason why we still see some of pre-WWII buildings. Of course, modernization has significantly changed its scene.   According to a local guide map, the inn town seems to start here. Saginomori shrine on the right side, was allegedly established in 904. The main building survived atomic bomb blast, according to Hiroshima city.  This temple, Jikouji temple, was established in 1447. The Sanmon gate survived atomic bomb blast.  Although Kusatsu inn town survived WWII, there are very few of pre-WWII buildings. This is Koizumi family residence. Probably this is the main attraction of Kusatsu unofficial inn town. It was build in late Edo period, and has been still in use as a sake brewery. Meiji emperor stopped by.  Across Koizumi family resi...