PEOPLE

I Would Like to Invite Every Citizen in Hagi to be a Guide to the Five Component Parts

Kato　The Matsushita Village School, located in the Shouin Shrine, is so well known throughout Japan that it needs no explanation. Whenever NHK's historical drama series about the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate is aired, many tourists flock to the site, do they not?

Tanaka　 Since its registration as a World Heritage Site, it has become an increasingly popular destination. As it is well known, the Matsushita Village School was a private school run by Yoshida Shoin, who advocated the Theory of Engineering Education, from 1857 to the following year. Both the house where Shoin was imprisoned and the building for cram school together form one of the component parts of the Matsushita Village School. The school itself is a small space with only two rooms, but the spirit of Hagi that was nurtured there is dynamic. The people of Hagi are not only proud of the historical site of the school, but also of a man Yoshida Shoin himself. Once, in the prefectural assembly, there was a person who called Yoshida Shoin without honorifics and was scolded by the chairman of the assembly, who was from the area, "Please address him as Yoshida Shoin-sensei." (Laugh)

Kato　The popular Hagi Castle Town is an archaeological site that shows the politics, administration, and economy in the community at the end of the Edo period when Japan was trying to industrialize. The three districts of “Hagi Castle Town”—the castle ruins, the old senior samurai estates, and the old townspeople's estates—are highly regarded by experts. I am most impressed by the fact that the town has remained in a beautiful condition after all these years.

Tanaka　　Hagi has never had an air raid, so it is left as it was in the Edo period. Even now, you can stroll around the streets using an Edo-period map. No matter how many times I visit, I always feel as if I have slipped back in time. We think of the whole town as a museum without a roof.

　Next, I would like to mention the Hagi Reverberatory Furnace located in Chinto-mae Obata (Obata District, located in front of Chinto Village). These are the remains of reverberatory furnace that was built in 1856 by the Hagi Clan in order to cast iron cannons.

Kato　 As an iron geek, I found these component parts very interesting. During the Edo period (1603-1868), when the country was closed off from the rest of the world, the clans were concerned about the arrival of the Black Ships, and they worked tirelessly to build iron cannons with long-range and large warships, relying on the little materials and knowledge they had. Eventually, the clans came to the conclusion that hard iron was vulnerable to shock, so they used the reverberatory furnace to melt hard iron into soft iron. I think the Hagi Reverberatory Furnace is a valuable property that shows the trial-and-error process at that time, as it is a prototype furnace that connects to the Nirayama Reverberatory Furnace in Shizuoka Prefecture, which is also part of the group of component parts of the "Sites of Meiji Japan’s Industrial Revolution."

Tanaka　The Ebisugahana Shipyard, located in Obata District, in front of Chinto Village, is the remains of a shipyard established by the Hagi Clan in 1856. The Edo Shogunate, which had enacted a ban on building large ships, took the opportunity of the arrival of the Black Ships to lift the ban and order the Hagi Clan to build warships. After Kogoro Katsura submitted his opinion on the construction of a warship to the clan, the then clan leader of Hagi, Mori Takachika, decided to build a Western-style warship. In 1856, the “Heishin Maru” was built using Russian technology, and in 1860, the “Koshin Maru” was built using technology handed down from Dutch instructors.

Kato　This is the only example of a shipyard where ships of different national influences were built in one place. Another significance of this property lies in the fact that it is the only shipyard where the remains of a sailing ship built at the end of the Edo period can be seen today. The Ohitayama Tatara Iron Works became a property when the Ebisugahana Shipyard built the "Heishin Maru" and ancient documents confirmed that the strong iron produced by the tatara iron works (an ancient Japanese iron manufacturing method that produces iron by burning iron sand and charcoal) was used to make nails and other items.

Tanaka　 We wish to make it possible for every citizen of the city to become a guide to the five component parts of Hagi, and like the people at the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate, we are trying to find the right path.