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Hall is restoring little by little

Today, the ruins of Ouchi Clan Hall have been designated as a National Historic Site. They are still in the center of Yamaguchi City, which still have parts of names for its streets like “Oji” or Main Street and “Kouji” or Narrow Street similar to Kyoto. Ryufukuji Temple was built inside the hall ruins by Takamoto Mori who was a son-in-law of Yoshitaka Ouchi to worship Yoshitaka. The main building was moved from another in the Meiji Era, but it is very old (built in the Muromachi Period as old as the Ouchi Clan), and it is also an Important Cultural Property. While several researches and excavations have been done at this site, nothing about the Ouchi Clan’s Main Hall was ever found. This may be because it is still under the temple’s main building.

The aerial photo around the castle

Instead, many other items regarding the hall were found. According to the achievements, some of them were restored at the site. For example, there are two restored gardens inside. One is the pond garden in the southeastern part, and the other is the dry landscape in the northwestern part. The earthen walls were also restored at the northern, western and southern sides of the ruins. The Western Gate and some stone work for the water moat were also restored at the western side.

Excavated Tsukiyama Hall Ruins

In north of Ochi Clan Hall Ruins, over the Tsukiyama-Kouji street, there is Tsukiyama Hall Ruins which was built as a villa. The southeastern part of them was excavated and developed as a historical park after a Japanese style restaurant had moved out from there to another site. Ruins of some buildings and dry moats were also found by the excavation team. The ruins were buried again for preservation and there are signboards and marks on the ground where they had been found. Historians speculate Norihiro Ouchi first used the hall as a retreat, then it was used to worship him after he died. That’s probably because the main part of the ruins are now used as Yasaka Shrine and Tsukiyama Shrine.

Konomine Castle Ruins are accessible

The ruins of Konomine Castle have also been designated as a National Historic Site. The castle was built on Konomine Mountain (at 338m above sea level), about 2km away from Ouchi Clan Hall. You can see the mountain standing out from the city area. You can access it by walking or driving. If you use a car, you can park at the mid slope of the mountain, however, you need to walk on the ridge to the top for about 500m.

You will see some enclosures made of soil on the way there. They were thought to be built by the Ouchi Clan and used by the Mori Clan as well. The top is surrounded by stone walls which the Mori Clan built. They partially collapsed because the clan intentionally destroyed them when the castle was abandoned. You can see a nice view of the city area including the hall ruins. The castle and the hall makes a perfect combination.

To be continued in “Ouchi Clan Hall/Konomine Castle Part3”
Back to “Ouchi Clan Hall/Konomine Castle Part1”