Okura

25. In front of the gate of Inazume Shrine

Some houses roofed with Akashi tiling are in front of the south gate of Inazume Shrine. They slide the vertical lattices of windows so that people cannot look in.We can see historic scenery since two old warehouses are standing in a row westward from here.

Okura

26. Daizoin temple

It is said that Akamatsu Sukenao built in 1441.They say that he pitched a camp here in order to oppose an army of Muromachi Shogunate that attacked his elder brother Akamatsu Mitsusuke.The name of imaginary mountain where the temple stands came from his wife’s Buddhist pseudonym kenkoin and the temple’s name Daizoin was related to his Buddhist pseudonym.The gate is decorated with tiles and carvings expressed many kinds of imaginary creatures to protect from evil spirits. The main building has a large half-hipped concave roof and the bell tower next to it is big and excellent.This temple has a lot of supporting member of a Buddhist temple around here.

Okura

27. The ruin of climbing kiln for Akashi ware

The ruin of climbing kiln is used as a wall of the private house. They used many climbing kilns before the World War Ⅱ but they broke down most of climbing kilns in case their tall chimneys would be the guides of the air raids.

Okura

28. A stool stone at Yasumi tenjin Shrine

The Lord of Akashi Matsudaira Nobuyuki embraced Sugawara Michizane and built this shrine in 1679.After ward people worshipped of Sugawara Michizane as the God of learning and visited here.It is said that the stone Sugawara Michizane sat on to rest on the way of being exiled to kyusu at the beginning of ten century was moved here.

Okura

29.The approach of Yasumi tenjin Shrine

The approach of Yasumi tenjin Shrine goes south but Route 2 crosses it. Wooden Marchant houses and town houses which are two storied and have wood paneled walls stand in row along the approach.The approach goes from the old Saigoku Highway to Yasumi tenjin Shrine and reminds us the past.

Okura

30.The chimney and the sign of Matsui Miso company

This building was the headquarters of Matsui Miso company founded in 1914. There are nostalgic signs and a chimney used in the process soy beaus were boiled, and therefore, this building is noticeable. Now the main office is in Fujie.

Okura

31.Matano liquor store

A lot of liquor stores are in the Okura area. This is a wooden two story building covered in paneling and has an impressive wooden sign. A sugidama (the ball made of the tips of Japanese cedar) hung above the front door is a mark of the liquor store and they made eaves over it. This is a flower shop too.

Okura

32.Udatsu (fire preventive walls) plastered black

These are row houses plastered black. They set udatsu on the second floor outer wall to stop the spread of, a fire.The east end of a part of second floor canopies exterior passage.

Okura

33.The stone wall of Hitomaru Kadan

There is the warehouse of Hitomaru Kadan on the much taller stone wall than neighborhood. The stone wall seems to be made at the place where there was a small hill once. It is interesting that the stone wall has a variety of colors, kinds and masonry.

Okura

【trivia01】Okura townscape

The drum warehouse ⑪, Hattori house ⑨ and Uduki house ⑧ stand in a row at Okura-hachiman-cho.

Okura

【trivia02】Samazama na Ishi

Stone has been used as building material for a long time, so it is seen everywhere of old streets and houses.It is set in the ground as the boundary or the gutter, erected as a boundary with the next property and used as waist-high wall or foundation of building.Stone put in front of house is called tying horse stone or nuisance stone and protects house from a car crash.Most of stone used for buildings from Okubo to the west of Akashi are Tatsuyama stone from Takasago.On the other hand, they use Tatsuyama stone and granite from Kobe as foundation of building in Okura area.Colorful Tatsuyama stones are used in the wall of Daizoin Temple.

Okura

【trivia03】The ruin of Honjin and an old tree

Honji means a prestigious hotel that high-class people like Daimyos or shogunate officers stayed in Edo period.It is said that Hirose Jihei from Iwakuni (Yamaguchi prefecture) started Okuradani Honjin around 1580.Since Saigoku Highway passed through Okuradani, daimyo’s processions going back and forth to Edo every two years stayed there, so Okura became a flourished town serving as a stage in Edo period. In those days, Honjin was around the present Okura market. The place was around the center of Okuradani and located in the south of Saigoku Highway. The situation of that was drawn in “Chugoku Kotei Ki” (the report of the route to Chugoku district), a picture of the Highway in Edo period.Howere the Honjin was closed down and Ryuguya Sumino one of Waki Honjins (sub-Honjins) which was at the present Okura kaikan at the end of Edo period. The names of Shukueki, Honin and Waki Honjin were abolished in 1870. Although Honjin was pulled down completely afterward, a tree in front of the Okura Kaikan is kept carefully. Because it is living witness to know that Okura flourished as a town serving as a stage.The tree looks ilex.

Okura