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

板倉宿(Itakura inn town) is located in Kita ward of Okayama city, close to JR Kibitsu station. This area is super historical because of Kibitsu shrine and other ancient tombs, plus Bitchu-Takamatsu castle, where lord Hideyoshi Toyotomi(His last name was still Hashiba) was besieging, against Mori clan, in 1582. Then Nobunaga Oda  who was in Kyoto, was assassinated by his own vassal, Mitsuhide Akechi. Consequently Hideyoshi had to negotiate with Mori for ceasefire, then returned to Yamazaki(Do you remember Yamazaki inn town?) in a week to engage in battle.    Of all these historical sites, Itakura inn town is probably one of the least known ones in this area.  Coming from JR Kibitsu station side, we will pass by a small inari shrine(Sho-ichii inari daimyojin) before crossing the bridge. According to Google map, I could not find the name of the river. It looks rather like a canal.  Then you see the sign of Itakura inn town. I wonder if houses and warehouses across the...

Several bloggers have written about 矢坂宿(Yasaka inn town) as an unofficial inn town between Okayama and Itakura. The only thing I found about this inn town is that there is a honjin ruins.  Here is the overview.  Seriously, due to scarcity of online data about this inn town, I am just going on Google map and find out what’s in there.  This is the sign of direction to Kitamuki Hachiman shrine. The shrine is located at the bottom of the small mountain. The shrine was allegedly established in late 9th century, and relocated to the current place in 1894.  This monument is one of haiku master Basho’s poems. However, Basho did not travel west of Akashi(We already passed by) in his lifetime. My guess is that someone who liked him or had some association with him just erected the monument here.  This looks like a house that used to have a horse barn.  Keep going west.  These houses look like at least of Edo-Meiji(mid-late 180s) period.  So Yasaka honjin th...

Utsunoya is a small village right before the pass. Many historical figures passed by(just like other inn towns in Tokaido) including lord Hideyoshi Toyotomi.  And this is probably one of the most beautiful villages on Tokaido. First of all, check out the overview.  This is one of places in Tokaido that preserve a good old-day scene. I visited several times.  Again, for more details, check out the reference section. Shizuoka prefectural R-208 used to be the original national R-1. Anyhow, we are stepping off from 208. Across the bridge, there is Kosatsuba information board.  From Tokyo side, this is a good uphill walk.  One thing we outsiders should be careful is that this is a tiny, living community.  Capacity to accept guests are limited. There are no hotels/inns to stay. Please be considerate.(But this courtesy should be applied to anywhere else too) Ohaoriya has something to do with Hideyoshi Toyotomi and Ieyasu Tokugawa. This family received haori tradit...

丸子宿(Mariko inn town) was also written as 鞠子宿。丸 means circle, and 鞠 means a ball. But the origin of the name Mariko has several hypotheses.  It most likely the river along the inn town has been called Mariko river, which became the inn town’s name.  Anyhow, here is the overview.  For detailed guide, refer to the reference section as I am posing the local guide map link.  This is the Edofara mitsuke, as seen in other inn towns. There is a sign for it.  This inn town still preserves fair number of old houses from 18-19th centuries.  There is a sign with detailed descriptions of Mariko inn town, in front of a little shrine altar.  Mariko river is right there.  Another sign of Mariko inn town descriptions. The one on the windows of a house is the history timeline of this inn town.  Some houses still hang up wooden place with old names of shops/businesses. Do you see there is one on middle right of the street view?  Toiyaba cargo terminal sign...

 Okayama inn town/castle town is one of inn towns of wonder: there are good records of the castle town including historical maps. But as least as far as Google map street views are concerned, there are very few places that we can track down what San’yodo/Saigoku Kaido route used to look like. There are many remarkable things and sites related to Okayama castle, but alas, I need to visit and physically walk on this part of Saigoku Kaido trail.  The route goes southeastward, as if it was avoiding Okayama castle. Then cross Asahi river to the castle town.    Then enter arcade streets for a while until we hit a wide street called Momotaro avenue. The classic story of Peach Boy is a big deal in Okayama as this is the place of the origin of the story.  If you google Momotaro story, you will soon hit a bunch of classic kids’ story of a boy together with his fellow animals who beats up bullies of goblins in an island. The actual story seems to come from Kibitsu-hiko no ...