Hagi Stories: Katsura Kogoro. By: Issaki, Taro. This book was given to me by Osaki Yoko, a kind lady at Hagi Museum.
Chapter 1: From Hagi to Kyoto
Page 4-5
Hagi’s Lower Castle District
During the Edo era, the military base of the 369,000 koku* Choshu Domain was constructed above the delta in an area known as Joka, or the Lower Castle District. In this northeastern region, the figure of the Shizuki Mountain thrusts out of the Sea of Japan, like an overturned rice bowl. At the foot of the mountain, the 5-tiered castle once towered over the land below, but at the start of the Meiji era, the castle was torn down, along with the residence of the Mori family, lords of Choshu. Today, only the stone walls remain.
From the castle, separated by the moat, the Horiuchi (also known as Sannomaru) Quarters stretch out. At one time, the shining eaves of the Mori family mansions and the mansions of all its most important ministers stood together in a line, a boundary. With the clay walls and stone bases still intact, the atmosphere remains even today, a designated important historical district.
But if you cross the moat at the east, you come to the Lower Castle District with its checkerboard streets, the district where Choshu’s rich merchants and samurai once lived.
Onari Street, the road used by the Mori Lords, runs east to west. Across this street, three parallel roads stretch out. Their respective quarters are named for the powerful merchant houses that lived there: Kikuya Quarters, Iseya Quarters, and Edoya Quarters. Looking at old maps from the Bakumatsu era, you’ll find these three streets, like sinews, connect to the backbone of society: about 30 houses of Choshu’s samurai families, their eaves lined together in a neat row.
*Koku: Literally stone, it is a unit for measuring rice and an indication of wealth
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