Spreading the Charms of Fukui to the World! - Visiting Ichijodani Asakura Clan Ruins Part-4-

As I introduced in our previous blog, I had the opportunity to join a tour visiting Ichijodani Asakura Clan Ruins in June 2017. I went with the president of the Hotel Riverge Akebono, Mr. Shimizu, the intern of the hotel, Ms. Julia Coslian, the manager of Fukui City Hospitality and Tourism Promotion Office, Mr. Takama and his staff member, Mr. Juancho Santamaria.

 

 

The Ichijodani Asakura Clan Ruins is a large site with a very interesting history. At the information desk, visitors can borrow an iPad to use throughout the area, which shows how things were built during the civil war period in Japan. English versions of the iPads are also available, so visitors from overseas can enjoy this place and its history.

 

 

As soon as we walked into the old town, which was reproduced based on the ruins there, so many interesting things caught our eyes and we felt the atmosphere change.

 

Mr. Shimizu explained to us how and why the town was built in the way they are now. He explained it to us simply so it was very fun and interesting for us to learn about the Ichijodani Asakura Clan Ruins and Japanese history.

 

 

For example, when entering the town from the area where enemies would have entered, you can’t see the end of the street.

 

 

However, from the end of the street where residents would have lived, they could easily see enemies entering the town. Therefore, the residents were able to prepare for battles. Julia was surprised to see the way the town was built for battle.

 

 

Juancho, a Fukui City Hospitality and Tourism Promotion Officer, is fluent in both Japanese and English so he participated in this tour as an interpreter that day. With Juancho and Mr. Shimizu’s explanation in Japanese and English, Julia seemed to enjoy experiencing the Japanese history and knowing about Ichijodani Asakura Clan Ruins.

 

I myself think it is best to visit actual places like this and not simply read from books or watch TV to understand the charms of such places. I also think that the Fukui accent and dialect, which sound relaxing, are an important part of Fukui’s charm.

 

 

More importantly, talking to others with a smile is one of the key values of Japanese “Omotenashi” culture.

 

 

DID YOU KNOW?

Although Ichijodani Asakura Clan Ruins has a rich history as the ruins of a feudal lord during a period of brutal civil war in Japan, it has also found fame as the filming location of a commercial for a popular Japanese cellular phone company.

One of the actresses in the commercial is so famous in Japan that she was too busy to participate in the filming of the commercial at the same time as the other actors and actresses. It is little known but the producers actually used a CGI version of her for the commercial! If you have a chance to watch the commercial, see if you can spot which actress is CGI.

 

Stay tuned for the next blog!

 

T.F

 

 

You can see some tourist attractions and the directions to these places from the webpage, "Hotel Reiverge Akebono, Tourist attractions around our hotel".

Made by Julia during her internship, this webpage has directions that are easy to follow.

She researched these tourist attractions, before visiting them and experiencing

the charms of Fukui herself. As I mentioned in our blog, it can be difficult for tourists

to get to some great places in Fukui, so this map that Julia made will help you

get around easier.

 

There is also a Japanese version of this webpage(only available in Japanese).

However, some of the places which are introduced on the Japanese webpage

are different to the English version that Julia made.