Travel Guide of Scenic Byway Kyushu

Q-❹ Kitakyushu Hospitality Roads
Kitakyushu City in Fukuoka Pref. －World Industrial Heritage inMeiji, Kokura Castle, and Nagasaki-kaido Road－Kitakyushu is a large city in the northern(2) Monument of Kyushu Surpart of Kyushu, and is located at the north
vey by Mr. Tadataka Ino.
end of the main island of Kyushu and facies the Hibiki-nada Sea and the Kanmonkaikyou Strait. The northeast peninsula isMoji Ward, which is connected to Shimonoseki City on the main island of Honshu
by three tunnels and one bridge. Therefore, they are closely linked each other andplay an important role in the formationand governance of the whole country (seephoto (1) and map).
The area of “Kitakyushu Hospitality
Roads” is the orange colored domainshown on the map, which extends from
Moji Ward to the Koyanose area of Yahatanishi Ward, and the main route is the historical "Nagasaki Kaido" road. However,in the current road network, Kitakyushu
City is developing as an industrial city
along with many national roads, and thisroute is complicated and requires attention.
In other words, in the current road network, the main roads from Kanmon
Bridge to the Koyanose area are National
Routes 2, 3, 200 and 211, and some prefectural roads are necessary
to supplement them. In addition, National Routes 199 and 198 forport logistics are parallel and can be used.
(Access) The access points to this area are Kitakyushu Airport andKokura Station on the Sanyo Shinkansen. There are many stationsof Kagoshima Main Line of JR Kyushu and Chikuho Electric Railway, which are also convenient to access to each scenic spot.
Furthermore, the Kitakyushu Urban Expressway passes parallelto the main route and all scenery areas. Therefore, you can quickly
access all of the landscape spots from anywhere (see map).
(Scenic Resources). There are two themes in scenic spots of Kitakyushu Hospitality Road has. One of them is the Nagasaki Kaido Road,
that connected Nagasaki and Kitakyushu. Under the national isolation policy from the 17th century to 19th century, only Nagasaki Port
was able to trade with a limited number of foreign countries. For thisreason, the section of Kitakyushu Hospitality Road on the Nagasaki
Kaido Road was particularly significant as a historic road. A Dutch
trading company traveled to Edo via the Nagasaki Kaido, while
many Japanese traveled to Nagasaki for the study of medicine andWestern science. Also, as a system of the shogunate, Daimyos inKyushu region passed the Nagasaki Kaido every two years. Fromthese, many post-inn towns developed along the Nagasaki Kaido.
The other is that Kitakyushu is a transportion center in the1(1)

Kanmon Strait and Kanmon Kyo Bridge

(1) Pedestrian Tunnel in Kanmon Strait Tunnel(1)

Mojiko Station of JR Kagoshima Main Line

(1)

Old Mitsui Club Building of Retro TownLine(2)-2 Kokura Castle surrounded by City Area(2)-1 “Tanka Food Market” in Kokura-Kita-Ward(2)-2 Castle Tower of Kokura Castle(2)-3 Yasaka Shrine in Kokura Castle(2)-3 Kokura Gion Drum of Yasaka Shrine festival

As shown on the map, the main landscape on the route can beorganized by a seies of zones (1) to (6), allowing travelers to visit theindustrial modernization and historical heritage of each zone.

(1) Moji Port Retro District
Moji-ko Port opened in the middle of Meiji era, and Moji Station ofKyushu Railway (currently Moji-ko Station of JR Kyushu) was built
next to it. As a result, many domestic and foreign passenger ships
entered the port, and Moji's port town developed greatly as a moderncity. Half a century later, however, Kanmon Railway Tunnel was constructed between the current Moji station of JR Kyushu and Shimonoseki Station of JR West Japan, and almost all functions of Moji
Port were moved to another area. Along with this, the role of Mojiko
Station as the gateway to Kyushu became smaller, and the functionof port town gradually declined.
Therefore, while preserving the buildings from the Meiji to Taishoeras (the former Mitsui Club, former Osaka Merchant Ship, etc.), we
added amenities and commercial facilities to transform the old port
town into a retro town. Now you can enjoy the Mojiko Retoro Town,
where the old port facility is located, and the Kanmon Strait.
The Mojiko Retro Sightseeing Train (Torokko Panorama Train) is(2)-4 Tokiwa Bashi Bridge (Murasaki River)

Kyushu region and has developed as an industrial city. Especially inthe Meiji era, the steel industry grew by taking advantage of coalproduced in neibouring areas and large-scale logistics. In addition,
several industrial facilities have been registered as World Culture
Heritage Sites, while overcoming environmental problems, excellent
activities for the new technology industry are continuing. Therefore,
in this scenic area, you can also explore the town with the theme ofindustry and port.
2operatd from Moji Port Station to the Mekari
Shrine at the tip of the peninsula for about
2km from. From the train, you can see
dramatic landscapes such as Kanmon Strait,
Kanmon Bridge and Shimonoseki City. TheKanmon Submarine Road Tunnel has apedestrian tunnel to walk on the seabed.

(2) Kokura Castle and its Town
In the scenic areas of (1) and (2), there are
National Routes 198 and 199 parallel toNational Route 3, and connect ports of Moji,Kokura, Tobata, and Wakamatsu along
Kanmon Strait and Hibiki-nada Sea.
Going west from the Moji port along thesenational routes, you can find Kokura Stationof the Sanyo Shinkansen, which is the hub of(4) View of Kitakyushu City from Mt. Sarakura
current transportation in Kitakyushu City.
On the other hand, in the Edo period, Tokiout of the 4th floor.
wabashi Bridge near this station was the starting
Besides, there is Yasaka Shrine founded by Hopoint of five historical roads in Kyushu and wassokawa Clan in Kokura Castle, and a famous shrinea hub of transportation. It was also Tokiwabashi
festival is held every summer in the parade of Japathat Inō Tadataka started the survey of Kyushu
nese drum and Mikoshi (portable shrine).
maps in the 18th century.
(3) Yahata Distirct and (4) Sarakura Mt.
Philipp Franz Balthasar von Siebold, an inhouse physician of the Dutch trading company,
The block (3) is an industrial area developed in thewrote in his diary; “Crossed the large wooden
direction of Dokai-wan Bay against the backdrop ofbridge (Tokiwa-bashi), advanced the square, andSarakurayama Mountain. Urban land use consists ofarrived at an inn not far away" (January 15,
the factory area of Nippon steel company, commercial1826)”.
area, and employee housing area, as shown in photo.
The front of the bridge is the commercial
The Yahata Steel Works was founded by the govdistrict of department store, arcade streets, andernment in 1901, and some of the facilities at that
restaurants. Tanka Food Market in the center oftime remain. Of these, the pumping station of Onga
Kitakyushu City is especially crowded as aRiver, the former head office building, repair shop
typical citizen's kitchen (see Photo (2) -1).
building, and blacksmith factory are registered as
Kokura Castle, on the other hand, is located on
World Cultural Heritage sites.
(3) Commemorative Park of Hithe west side of the Murasaki River and isgashida first Blast Furnace.
In addition, Higashida First Blast Furnace was insurrounded by the city hall, cultural facilities andstalled in 1901 and finished its role. Therefore, a melarge commercial facilities. The port is on the the sea side of landfill,morial park was built as shown in the photo and is now on display
surrounded by condominiums and factories. Photo (2)-2 on page 2 is
as a monument of an industrial city.
a view of the castle seen from the roof deck of the city hall.
In addition to the road, you can reach the summit of Mt.Sarakura
Kokura Castle was built by Hosokawa Clan in the early17th cen(622m) by cable car and slope car. From the observatory, you can entury. However, it has been rebuilt every time the fire repeated. Thejoy wonderful views of Kitakyushu City, Kanmon Straits, and Shicurrent castle tower was restored in 1959 at the request of citizens.
monoseki City day and night (see Photo (4)).
This is called "Tang-making structure", which has the feature that(5) Magarinosato Avenue of Nagasaki-Kaido
there is no eave between the 4th and 5th floors, and the 5th floor is
If you go further west from the Yawata district, you will find Kurosaki Station on the Kagoshima Main Line, and further south on thestreet in front of the station for 500 m, you will reach Magarinosato
Park, which is lined with pine trees. It is Nagasaki Kaido Road,
which has been passed down since the Edo period. The row of pinetrees was quite long from Koyanose to Kurosaki, but now only this600m section remains. Along the path of pine forests with a historyof hundreds of years, you can forget the bustle of the city.

(6) Koyanose-juku Town
Koyanose-juku is the next post-inn town south of Kurosaki-juku
on Nagasaki-Kaido. Photo (6)-3 is a stone guide-sign at the junctionof Nagasaki-kaido and Karatsu-kaido in Koyanose. The town wasvery prosperous with the intersection of the two Kaido and the OngaRiver.

(3) Old Office of Yahata Ironworks Factory (World Heritage).

3

If you take a walk throughthe town streets, you can enjoy
the historic buildings and cityscape that retains the atmosphere of prosperity of past (seePhoto (6)). The streets of thetown are curved to protect thetown, and there are narrowroads with dead ends everywhere.
The Koyanose Memorial
Museum introduces the historyof the town and displays
historical materials. If you obtain(6)-1 Street View of Koyanose-juku (post-inn town)
basic information, you candate back 200 years.
effectively walk around the city.
As mentioned earlier, Koyanose-juku in the Edo period was amajor transportation hub in the northern Kyushu. For this reason,
there were three Shoyas in charge of operating the town. The first
person is "Mura-Shouya", who oversees the village. The second
person is “Yado Shouya”. There were many inns, and he was thechairman of the inn association. The third person is “Funa Shouya”.
He owned the river boats on the Onga River and was entrusted withthe right to manage and transport Nengumai (rice as land tax).
Photo (6) -2 shows the Matsuo family’s house, who was a MuraShouya. It was built as a store in the latter half of the Edo period,and is built so that the entire pillar is filled with plaster on the outerwall and the eaves. The Funa-Shouya house was also built around(4) Magarinosato-matsunamiki (line-up of Pine Trees)
the same time, with the earthen floor extending to the back, and theceiling of Zashiki (reception room) is made with the image of the
Publishing and Copy right：Promotion Conference of Kyushu
bottom of ship.
Scenic Byways ○C (Copyright 2020. All Rights Reserved)
If you visit them and look at various ideas, you may feel that they(6)-3 Guide-signpost at Turning Point ofNagasaki-kaido and Karatsu-kaido(6)-2 House of the Village Headman (Matsuo Family), and the Inside.

"Yamakasa" with decoration of clothes in day and with lanterns in night,
in Tobata Gion Yamakasa Festival.

4Tobata Gion Yamagasa Festival
Although Tobata Ward is not in the scope of this scenic road,but is adjacent to it. Therefore, it can be easily added to the tour(Photo (4)). In this area, the Festival of Tobata Gion Yamagasa
is held in every July and it is registered as UNESCO Intangible
Cultural Heritage together with Hakata Gion Yamakasa andso on.
This festival is held by shrines in four districts of Tobata
Ward. Adults take part in the Oyamakasa parade, and juniorhigh school students, in Kowaka-Yamakasa Parade.
Yamakasa is decorated with membrane and fabric in the day,but it changes to Yamakasa decorated by lanterns at night, asin photo. There is no other example of Yamakasa that transforms the appearance at day and night. This is the big featureof Tobata Gion Yamakasa.