Okura

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.