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ｋintai bridge has had the name
of our hometown Iwakuni known to many people throughout the
nation as being a symbol of this historical city.
According to some ancient literatures, however, Iwakuni had
already been known to people of as old as Yamato Imperial as
being a busy strategic point both for the marine and land routes
of Sanyodo Highway of old.
Famous Manyoshu poetries contains a Tanka, a Japanese poem of 31
syllables, which reads: "On the Day You Cross Over Iwakuni
('a rocky country" in its original meaning) Mountains of
Suoh, Had You Better Make Lords Tight; The Road Is
Cramped," which most likely indicates that Iwakuni in those
days was full of such travelers as the governors sent from the
Imperial, the ambassadors sent to China coming and going.
Later days, House of Ohuchi, then House of Mouri besieged and
governed Iwakuni for a while respectively, but finally Hiroie
Kikkawa, a son of Motoharu Mouri started to rule Iwakuni by
building up a castle along with the castle town, noble figure of
which has since been preserved down to today; not mention to
Kintai bridge built by Hiroyoshi Kikkawa, the third successor of
Iwakuni clan.
It has been said that Iwakuni clan was outstanding among many
clans of Sanyodo due to its highly regarded spirits of
self-esteem in spite of as small as 60 thousand barely of rice
prescribed by Shogun as yearly budget of the clan. The quality
of academic knowledge and martial arts, for example, was known
to be excellent, the morale of Samurai was high, and the
industries were flourishing, and encouragement of education of
children, most of all, has still been the core of the spirits of
self-motivation. At the end of long reign of House of Tokugawa,
Iwakuni of Kikkawa clan was shaken from its foundation just as
most clans of those days were, when such legendary figures of
Samurai as Kogoroh Katsura, Shinsaku Takasugi, and Genzui Kusaka
were actively campaigning against foreign threats and Hose of
Tokugawa. Choshu clan, from which those Samurais sprang, was
spearheading to establish the Emperor ruling by overthrowing
Shogun dynasty, and Kikkawa clan was the subsidiary of Choshu.
Legendary Takamori, then called Kichinosuke, Saigo of Satsuma
clan once visited Iwakuni before or after Satsuma-Choshu
Alliance was formed, some source report.
Time has passed, the days were gone. Yet, the spirits of
independence and self-dignity is still silently flowing in this
city Iwakuni, the hometown of Yaoshin Brewery. |
