Tsuwano Castle

 

Tsuwano Castle, celebrating the 700th anniversary of its founding this year, 2024, is now mostly ruins.

It is situated on a mountaintop, 200 meters above the town of Tsuwano which was built as a castle town in the early Edo Period.

There are no roads up to the ruins, but three walking trails or a chairlift.

Even after taking the chairlift there is still some walking to the first part of the ruins.

The original castle was started in 1282 shortly after the first Mongol Invasion and was meant to protect against further possible invasions. The Yoshimi Clan controlled the area for more than 300 years.

In essence it was a large fortified mountain ridge with fortifications spread over two kilometers along the ridge.

In the mid 16th century the region was invaded by Sue Harukata and he unsuccessfully besieged the castle for more than 100 days.

In the meantime, the Mori Clan took advantage and attacked the Sue and defeated them at the Battle of Itsukushima

Following the Battle of Sekigahara the Yoshimi were removed from the area and Sakazaki Naomori took over the domain.

It was he were remade the castle into the form it is today and started the construction of the castle town.

He reduced the size of the castle to its central section and modernized it by building most of the stonework that you see today.

In 1619 sakazaki was replaced by the kamei Clan and they held the castle and domain until 1868.

In 1686 the tenshu, keep, was destroyed by a fire caused by lightning and it was never replaced. The Daimyo lived and administered the domain from buildings at the base of the mountain, two of which are still standing.

During the Boshin War the Imperialist forces led by Choshu marched through the valley and the Kamei samurai stayed within the castle and allowed them to pass.

The castle was dismantled in 1874, shortly before the government ordered castles to be dismantled.

Even if you have not much interest in castle ruins, Tsuwano Castle is well worth a visit for the amazing views.

During the late autumn when the weather phenomenon known in Japanese as unkai occurs the castle ruins are above the surrounding valleys filled with clouds much like the much more famous Takeda Castle in Hyogo.

Down below the castle to the south is the Washibara Hachimangu Shrine which has the only purpose-built yabusame, horseback archery, grounds in Japan.

The previous castle I posted on was Hiroshima Castle. The previous post on Tsuwano I posted was on the garden at Yomeiji temple.

Isotake Beach

 

Isotake Port is situated in small bay protected by a headland. On the seaward side of the ports residential area runs a narrow beach.

The beach runs up to a couple of small headlands. In the distance can be seen the Shimane Peninsula that I will reach in a couple of more days walking.

Inland Mount Sanbe is clearly visible. At 1,126 meters, it is the highest point in the former province of Iwami, and is actually classed as an active volcano, but has not erupted in historical times.

Like so much of the coastline of Japan, it has its fair share of concrete tetrapods protecting it, though to be fair on the Japan Sea side we have a lot of natiral coatsline left compared to the Pacific Side.

After these couple of headlands there is a long stretch of somewhat wilder beach.

This is called Isotake Beach and inland of it is the Isotake JR station and an agricultural settlement now cosidered part of Isotake.

The previous post in this series exploring the Sea of Japan coastline was on Isotake Port.

Watari to Shikaga Along the Gonokawa River

 

After visiting the Hachiman shrine I carry on up the riverside road through what used to be called Watari but is now just considered Kawagoe.

It used to be a sizable settlement, having a village shrine and a couple of temples.

Now, at least half the properties are abandoned...

Across the river on the opposite bank is the former Mizunokuni Water Museum.

It has been closed now for several years, around the time that the rail line closed. Even though it is on the main road it never had many visitors and I am amazed is stayed open as long as it did. many of my older posts about it no longer have photos, but this one does.

Though we are about 25 kilometers from the mouth of the river, it is still fairly wide at this point.

There may well have been a trail along this section before the railway was built in the  1930"s, but the road, as narrow as it is, was only built at the same time as the train line. Traffic of any kind is very rare, usually a small post office or delivery van a couple of times a day... that it...

Sections of the bank are so narrow that tunnels were necessary.

I am amazed many of the roadside altars are regularly supplied with fresh flowers. As the few elderly inhabitants die off they too will become abandoned.

The next settlement of any size, with a new, concrete bridge across the river, a big shrine, a couple of temples, and the abandoned railway station, is Shikaga. Here I will take a  few kilometers detour  inland.

The previous post was on the Hachiman Shrine in Kawagoe.

Isotake Port

 

Just a short walk past one small inlet after Takuno and I came into Isotake Port.

Named after Isotakeru, one of the sons of Susano, the small shrine at the harbour, Karakamishirahige Shrine is where I first read about the myth of Susano coming here.

The shrine's name roughly translates as " foreign gods from Sila" and enshrines Susano and a couple of his daughters. Some versions say that Isotakeru came with them from Sila, some say he was born here.

The shrine records say that Susano and others would travel back and forth to the Korean Peninsula, a story confirmed by other legends further down the coast at several coastal towns in  Yamaguchi. The myth of Susano's arrival in these parts is also recognized at the previous port of Takuno.

It is a decent-sized harbour with quite a few inshore fishing boats.

A friend and I stopped in here in a small yacht many years ago, and the local fishermen were intrigued by our boat.

If you look back through all the posts in this series documenting my explorations of the Sea of Japan coast, you may notice there are only fishing boats, no pleasure boats of any kind. Yachts and pleasure boats exist in Japan of course, but not in this neck of the woods.

Like traditional towns, these little fishing settlements have lots of very narrow alleys between the houses.

The previous post was on Takuno Port.

Yuminato Harbour

 

Yuminato is a small harbor and fishing village at the mouth of the Yusato River.

Now part of Yusato village, the main village is a little way upstream.

The river starts in the mountains visible in the photo above where Iwami Ginzan and the old silver mines are located.

Though there was a harbour with massive concrete walls, most of the boats were drawn up on the beach.

In fact, with the exception of one small boat with a tiny superstructure and cabin, all the boats were very small "open" types.

Yuminato translates as "hot water harbour". It is part of Yusato which translates as "hot water village", which is part of Yunotsu, which translates as "hot water port'.

On this visit, I was on the third leg of my deep exploration of the Sea of Japan coast. The previous post was the Hiso Natural Arch.