Hitomaru

The gate of this house is tea-ceremony cottage style that has the roof of combination of Japanese clay tile roofing and sheet copper roofing, and the door made of zelkova.  We see the range ashlar masonry of quarry face granite for the wall base, polished face granite for the sill and the curved wall finished by washing finish of greenschist.  This is a great work of combination of Japanese and Western-style.

There were three kinds of moats of the castle.  First, the inner moat surrounded the living space of the lord in the castle.  Second, the middle moat surrounded the castle.  The third, the outer moat divided samurais’ area from tradesmen and artisans’ area.  Most of outer moats were filled and changed into the road, but we can see the northeast part of the outer moat at the place between Okuramongate and Honsho-ji temple.

Unsei-ji temple was the family temple of feudal lord’s chiefs retainers of the Akashi domain.  Its main hall was destroyed by World War Ⅱ, but it was rebuilt in 1977.  The mitesaki-tokyo was originally used to support deep eaves of temples and shrines.  It is unique to support wide wooden deck.

Hitomaru Elementary School was founded at the place to the west of Sanyo Electric Railway Hitomarumae station and to the north of Route 2 as Akashi Second Elementary School in 1901.  It was moved to its present location in 1926.  Judging from the stone retaining wall,  the land around here was low and the riverbed of the Ryoma River was higher than both sides of grounds.

The National Highway Market is thought that it opened when the railroad tracks of Sanyo Electric Railway were replaced with Simmei Highway, Route 2 and its north end reached Route 2.  Two-story shops stood in two rows on both sides of passage and all-weather arcade was installed like other markets in those days.

The respectable two-story warehouse standing on Route 2 has Japanese-style mission tiling and outer wall paneled with copper sheet and board upright paneling.  Its mainbuilding is a pawnshop whose entrance faces the south road.  The road in front of the warehouse is now Route 2, but it was the railroad tracks of Sanyo Electric Railway, so they didn’t seem to make the entrance there.

There is a Japanese-style loading next to Shirakumo Shrine in Sakura-machi, see the booklet of “The south area from Akashi Castle 42.  Its waist-high wall is paneled with ceder board upright and upper wall is finished with plaster.  The wooden latticework of the windows is beautiful.  In those days,  since we had no hotel, there were many small Japanese-style loadings in downtown.

Akashi Telegraph Station was built here in 1883. The name of the building was changed to Akashi Post and Telegraph Station in 1889 and to Akashi Post Office in 1903. The building disappeared because of World War Ⅱ. This is a reinforced concrete building designed simple.

We sometimes see marks or letters carved on the boundary stones. The mark T and a bar above T, 〒, may indicate the post office, also the kanji “umi” probably shows the sea. You can enjoy finding these signs while walking around the town.

There is a stone signpost which was carved “about 330 meters from here to Mt.Hitomaru Kajiya-machi” at the point where the road from Hosho-ji temple reaches staright the old highway. The place name is Temmon-cho now but old maps show it Kajiya-machi. The signpost told the boundary too.

The stockade and jutted out ridge beam look like unique design of old houses in Okura-cho. This seems to be younger than that of Okura-cho’s because the outer wall is coppered and height of second floor is larger.

Hitomaru temple belonging to Koyasan Shigon sect was brought here and reconstructed in 1954. There had been Akashi Police Station and government employee housings here from the year of 1882 to 1928. This is a Japanese-style building with two tier half-hipped roofs and has Western-style wall in washing finish of stone on brick.