Hagi Castle - Castle Town Miscellany

This album is dedicated to a set of photos from around the castle town that don't fit into other categories or don't have enough photos to create a new album. They are also important to the castle town and I encourage people to look through this fascinating set of photos and locations Kosatsuba'

Hagi Castle - Castle Town Miscellany

その他の城下町

This album is dedicated to a set of photos from around the castle town that don't fit into other categories or don't have enough photos to create a new album. They are also important to the castle town and I encourage people to look through this fascinating set of photos and locations

Kosatsuba This is a reconstructed kosatsuba or location where domain and bakufu decrees were posted for all to see. Along the ground we can also see some markings of the original stone walls that went past here but have been long since buried.

Katsura Taro Residence & Aibagawa samurai residences Katsura Taro a former samurai, general and three time prime minister grew up here. The residence was rebuilt in 1909 so it does not get included as a samurai residence, but the site illustrates a typical samurai residence along the Aibagawa like the Yukawa Residence. The little protrusion over the water (called hatoba) from several houses created a wash basin over the river.

Tokoji Temple This temple on the outskirts of Hagi was actually my first stop in Hagi. 40 graves of Mori family members, including 5 Choshu Domain Lords may be found here. The site is also contains several important cultural properties.

Jonenji Temple Gate The Uramon (裏門) of Jurakudai was gifted to Mori Terumoto by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Mori took the gate with him and placed it in Hagi Castle. While Hagi Castle was being built, Mori lived at Jonenji Temple and eventually gifted the gate to the temple. The gate is a national important cultural property.

Hagi Rebellion Penitentiary Grounds This is an interesting location. There is no sign telling you what it is but clearly it looks to be Edo Period earthen walls and gate that have been left abandoned. In a town like Hagi why is the site not preserved? Following the Hagi Rebellion (1876 rebellion against the new Meiji Government), Maehara Issei and other leaders of the rebellion were held here and eventually executed. Perhaps it is a part of Hagi history they would rather forget!

Unknown Samurai Residence I passed this site walking around and noticed some tiles had Mori Kamon. What you can see of the building and gate looks old. I found the location on old maps which indicate it was a samurai residence, but I cannot confirm from any other information if there are original structures here or not, but it seems likely. Maybe someday it will pass to the city for preservation.

Unknown Gate If you stay at one of the hotels along the coast or just walk down that road you are likely to encounter this big gate, but again, no sign posts to tell you what it is. It looks like it could be a gate to a former samurai residence. I actually asked at the tourist information center, who passed along my question to one of the staff of the culture center at the Meirinkan, but no one could find an answer. A few weeks later I received an email that the land was one owned by the Sase Family and it could have been a gate to their residence, but an elementary school once stood on these grounds too. It may have been from the school but even the school gate may have reused the samurai residence gate that was there already, a fairly common occurrence. With the background, I feel like this looks more like a school gate than something that would have stood at a samurai residence.

Mori Villa Gate If you walk around the Hagi Horiuchi area you may encounter this large ornate gate with no English and a barely readable Japanese sign. This is the gate from the Mori Villa that was constructed in Kamakura in the Meiji Period, so it is not technically an Edo Period samurai residence gate. It was moved to Hagi with the entire villa in 1921. The rest of the villa was eventually dismantled leaving only the gate which was moved to this location in 1974.

Onago Battery The Onago Battery (女台場) was one of several coastal artillery fortifications built by the Chōshū domain as part of a defensive network along the Sea of Japan. Constructed in response to the increasing presence of Western ships, it served as a Western style emplacement for cannon to protect Hagi and its surrounding areas. The name “Onago” or “Women’s Battery” is said to originate from local accounts that women of the town played a significant role in its construction while the men were away fighting in other battles.