Kokura-shi is an ancient castle town and the center of modern Kitakyushu, Japan. Kokura is also the name of the Kokura Station on the southbound San'yō Shinkansen line, which is owned by JR West. Ferries connect Kokura with Matsuyama on Shikoku, and Busan in South Korea.
History
Edo period
The
Ogasawara clan and
Hosokawa clan clans were
daimyō at
Kokura Castle during the Edo period (1603–1868).
Miyamoto Musashi, samurai swordsman, author of
The Book of Five Rings and founder of the Hyoho Niten Ichi-ryū, famous for its use of two swords, lived in the Kokura castle under the patronage of the Ogasawara and Hosokawa clans briefly during 1634.
Meiji period
After the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate, Kokura was the seat of government for Kokura Prefecture. When the municipal system of cities, towns and villages was introduced, Kokura Town was one of 25 towns in the prefecture, which later merged with Fukuoka Prefecture. Kokura was upgraded to city status in 1900.
World War II
Kokura was the primary target for the "
Fat Man" atomic bomb on August 9, 1945, but on the morning of the raid, the city was obscured by morning fog. Kokura had also been mistaken for the neighboring city of Yahata the day before by the reconnaissance missions. Since the mission commander Major
Charles Sweeney had orders to drop the bomb visually and not by radar, he diverted to the secondary target,
Nagasaki. The planes, however, did fly over Kokura and were extremely close to executing the mission drop.
Post-war
When the city of Kitakyushu was created in 1963, Kokura was divided into
Kokura Kita ward in the north, and
Kokura Minami ward in the south.
Notable residents
-
Matsumoto Seichō – writer
-
Miyamoto Musashi – swordsman and rōnin
-
Mori Ōgai – physician, translator, novelist and poet
-
Tetsuya Theodore Fujita – Meteorologist, lived in Kokura during World War II
-
Leiji Matsumoto, mangaka
Notable figures born in Kokura
Festivals
The
Gion Festival of Kokura is called the "Gion of
" and celebrates the life of local folk-hero
Muhomatsu.
Notable facts
The city is the site of the main
dojo (honbu) of
Miyamoto Musashi's
kenjutsu koryu, Hyoho Niten Ichi-ryū.
See also
-
Kokura Kita-ku
-
Kokura Minami-ku
-
Kokura Prefecture
-
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
