Exploring the Birth of Modern Japan at Hagi’s World Heritage Sites

Strolling Through History

The city of Hagi in Yamaguchi flourished during feudal times as the seat of the Chōshū domain. Near the end of the Edo period (1603–1868), the domain rose to national prominence as a leader in the movement to topple the long-ruling Tokugawa shogunate and restore central power to the emperor, a turning point known as the Meiji Restoration. Many of the Chōshū elite went on to take roles in the newly formed Meiji government and promoted large-scale modernization across Japan, making Hagi where many of the seeds of the Japan’s industrialization were planted.

Hagi retains its historic charms as a former castle town. The jōkamachi area that once stood at the base of the castle is lined with walls of earth or white stucco shielding the sprawling samurai residences. The quaint, traditional townscape makes Hagi a joy for sightseers as well as Japanese history buffs. Strolling through the narrow streets of the castle town, visitors will discover that the old maps of the area are still as exact as when they were first drawn more than a century earlier.

The Kikuya Yokochō area of Hagi was home to many figures of the Meiji Restoration, including Takasugi Shinsaku. (© Nippon.com)

The Hagi Meirin Gakusha serves as an ideal starting point for a sightseeing trip. The building, an old elementary school that stood on the grounds of the domain’s Meirinkan school for samurai, was repurposed and since 2017 has served as a museum and visitor’s center, providing information on Hagi’s scattered World Heritage Sites.

Hagi boasts several locations, including the jōkamachi area, that are part of the UNESCO world heritage designation of sites that figured in Japan’s modernization and industrialization. Below, we take a tour of the five sites to highlight Hagi’s charms and the industrial developments of late-Edo Japan.

The main building of Meirin Gakusha is a nationally registered tangible cultural property. (© Nippon.com)

A display at the World Heritage Visitor Center (© Nippon.com)

The Yūbikan was part of the original domain school’s dōjō for sword and spear arts. (© Nippon.com)

Hagi Castle Town

The old castle town of Hagi sets on a delta island at the mouth of the Abu River and includes three distinct areas: the jōkamachi area around the castle ruins, the samurai district, and the merchant district.

Hagi Castle, which sadly was dismantled by government order in 1874, stood at the northern tip of the delta island at the base of 143-meter-tall Mount Shizuki. The main citadel took full advantage of the surrounding geography for defense, with the mountain standing guard on one side and the sea protecting the castle on the other three.

The Hagi castle ruins are now part of Hagi Castle Shizuki Park. (© Nippon.com)

A view of Mount Shizuki and the old castle moat from the remains of the castle tower. (© Nippon.com)

Shizukiyama Shrine inside the park is associated with the Mōri family, whose members headed the Chōshū domain. (© Nippon.com)

The samurai district extends southeast of the castle ruins. Along with its samurai residences, it was the center of the domain’s political and administrative work, and doubled as the castle’s outermost defenses.

The area features stately manors of high-ranked vassals, and the streets along the river are lined by tall earthen walls interspersed with impressive gates. The avenues are still interspersed in places by sharp right turns known as kaimagari (key turns). In the past, these aided in defense by combining with the towering walls on both sides to block a potential invading force from gaining a clear line of sight. This district has other attractions, including the Kita no Sōmon, a gate constructed in the distinctive kōrai style, and the Hagi Museum.

The former estate of the Fukuhara family, who long served the Chōshū domain as chief retainers. (© Nippon.com)

The road bends sharply at the Hiyako Kaimagari. (© Nippon.com)

The merchant district, which borders the samurai residences to the east, is marked by the manors of middle- and lower-class samurai and merchant houses. The former homes of notable figures of the Meiji Restoration—Kido Takayoshi, Takasugi Shinsaku, and others—make the area of especial interest for history buffs, although even the less historical minded will also find plenty to enjoy, including restaurants serving local seafood, small cafes, and specialty shops.

The castle town looks onto the sea, and the Chōshū domain, following the arrival of Black Ships of US Commodore Matthew Perry in 1853, was quick to adopt Western-style armaments like warships and cannon emplacements to guard its shores.

The former residence of Meiji Restoration architect Kido Takayoshi in Hagi’s Edoya Yokochō district. (© Nippon.com)

A statue of Takasugi Shinsaku stands in a park at the southern end of Kikuya Yokochō. (© Nippon.com)

Historic buildings housing shops offering Hagiyaki pottery and other local specialties. (© Nippon.com)

Mount Shizuki, as seen from the shore at Kikugahama. (© Nippon.com)

Shōka Sonjuku

One of the most influential figures for the leaders of the Meiji Restoration was the thinker and educator Yoshida Shōin (1830–59). A person of great intellect, Yoshida was an assistant teacher at the Meirinkan school by the age of nine, becoming a full-fledged teacher at 19. When he was 20, he embarked on a trip around Japan to study, but did so without permission from the domain ruler and was subsequently stripped of his status. At 25, he conspired to stow away on one of the Black Ships, but the plan ended in failure.

Yoshida confessed to his crime and was imprisoned in Hagi. At 27, his sentence was commuted to confinement to his family estate. There, he held lectures and eventually opened his own school, Shōka Sonjuku, where he taught Confucian thought, military science, and history, declaring loyalty to the emperor and seeking to oppose pressure from foreign imperialist powers.

The Shōka Sonjuku building is preserved on the grounds of the Shōin Shrine in the jōkamachi area along the Matsumoto River. Yoshida’s childhood home stands next door, as does the building where he was confined during his house arrest, both of which are part of the World Heritage Site designation.

The Shōin Shrine, dedicated to Yoshida Shōin. (© Nippon.com)

Shōka Sonjuku was established in 1857. (© Nippon.com)

The building where Yoshida was confined during his house arrest. (© Nippon.com)

Yoshida was only 30 when he was executed in Edo during the Ansei Purge of 1858, which was an attempt by the central government to stamp out dissidents like those evincing pro-emperor and anti-Western sentiment.

The classroom of Shōka Sonjuku sent many idealistic young patriots out into the world. (© Nippon.com)

Many of Yoshida’s students carried on his ideals and spurred Japan into the modern age. Perhaps the most famous of these was Itō Hirobumi. Born into a poor peasant family, Itō’s father was adopted into a lower ranked military family, making Itō nominally a member of the samurai class. However, his low status meant that he had to stand outside Shōka Sonjuku when listening to lectures.

In 1863, Itō and a group of other youths were ordered by domain leaders to travel to Britain to study. Upon returning home, Itō turned his ideals toward opening Japan to Westernization. With Takasugi Shinsaku and other patriots, he helped raise a volunteer army and became a leading figure in the domain. He demonstrated his skills of negotiation through weapon imports and trade with other domains. He held important posts in the newly formed Meiji administration, and in 1885 he was selected to be Japan’s first prime minister. Itō’s former residence and villa are preserved to the south of Shōin Shrine.

A Hagiyaki earthenware statue of Itō stands next to his former residence. (© Nippon.com)

Itō’s former villa was moved here from its original location in Shinagawa, Tokyo, and speaks eloquently of the man’s life. (© Nippon.com)

Hagi Reverberatory Furnace

The remaining three world heritage sites were built by the Chōshū domain to prepare Western-style arms.

About one kilometer to the north of the Shōin Shrine, in the district of Chintō, stands the Hagi reverberatory furnace. After the British defeat of the Qing dynasty in the Opium War and the arrival of the Black Ships, the need for coastal defenses became clear to the Chōshū domain. The furnace was built in 1856 as a test to see if the domain could make its own cast-iron cannons, but the experiment ended in failure. Although Chōshū leaders gave up their designs on building a full-scale reverberatory furnace complex, the site is an important remnant of the period’s intense trial-and-error approach to Western-style modernization.

The reverberatory furnace stands out among its surroundings. (© Nippon.com)

The bricks used in the upper sections of the chimney were made using local Hagiyaki earthenware techniques. (© Nippon.com)

Ebisugahana Shipyard

The year 1856 was also when the domain opened the Ebisugahana shipyard along the Chintō seaside in a bid to build Western-style ships. That same year, the domain successfully launched the Heishin Maru, a vessel used for naval training and transport. Another ship, the Kōshin Maru, was completed in 1860 but was sunk by US ships in the battle of Shimonoseki. It was successfully salvaged and used to repel the shogunate’s punitive attack on Chōshū.

The Heishin Maru was constructed using shipbuilding techniques learned from the Russian nave, while the Kōshin Maru was made using Dutch technologies. As the only remaining late-Edo shipyard, Ebisugahana is doubly rare for its incorporation of two nations’ technologies.

This stonework retaining wall at Ebisugahana predates the shipyard construction. (© Nippon.com)

The site where the Kōshin Maru was built. (© Nippon.com)

Ōitayama Tatara Iron Works

The Ōitayama Tatara Iron Works supplied the iron for the nails, anchors, and other materials used to build the Heishin Maru. Traditional tatara iron production uses wood charcoal to melt down iron sand. The iron works required massive amounts of wood to run, and after a dozen or so years of work, the surrounding forests were heavily depleted and required some 50 years to recover. To keep its iron production going, the Chōshū domain built tatara furnaces in several locations and ran them in a cycle.

The tatara iron works at Ōitayama were what kept Japan’s military shipbuilding going. These ruins are testament to how traditional Japanese techniques were adapted to Western technology.

The ruins of the Ōitayama Tatara Iron Works. (© Nippon.com)

An exhibition facility stands near the parking lot, offering information about making iron in the late Edo. (© Nippon.com)

Touring Hagi’s World Heritage Sites offers a sense of just how much education and skill the warriors and merchants of the Chōshū domain possessed, and how adept they were at putting these to use.

Visitors to the Meirin Gakusha can take a photo with the “Chōshū Five” who travelled to Britain. (© Nippon.com)

(Originally published in Japanese. Report, text, and photos by Nippon.com. Banner photo: The ruins of Hagi castle are a designated national historical site and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. © Nippon.com.)