Iwakuni (岩国市) is a city located in Yamaguchi, Japan.   Iwakuni was formerly the castle town of the Iwakuni-han (岩国藩), which was formed by Lord Hiroie Kikkawa (吉川広家) after he was banished there for supporting the defeated shogun.  The Kikkawa clan ruled the han during the Edo Period.  The han was originally assessed at 30 thousand koku, and later, 60 thousand.  Iwakuni han prospered for 300 years up until the Meiji Restoration.  Before being re-founded with the same name following the mergers in 2006, the city was first founded on April 1, 1940.  On March 20, 2006, the old city of Iwakuni absorbed the towns of Kuga (玖珂町), Mikawa (美川町), Miwa (美和町), Nishiki (錦町), Shuto (周東町) and Yu (由宇町), and the village of Hongo (本郷村), all from Kuga County (玖珂郡), to form the new, expanded city of Iwakuni.  It has an area of 873.85 sq. km and its population of 141,263 (April 1, 2012)  (Cited from the site of "Wikipedia")

IMAGE	IMAGE NO.	DATA
JR Iwakuni Station		JR Iwakuni Station (JR岩国駅)
	yiw2012-001	(Wednesday 14 March) JR Iwakuni Station (JR岩国駅)
Kenshi Hirokane		Kenshi Hirokane (弘兼 憲史, 1947-) was born in Iwakuni.  After graduating law school of Waseda University (早稲田大学法学部), he worked for three years (1970-1973) for Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (松下電器産業株式会社; In 2008 renamed as Panasonic Corporation: パナソニック株式会社).  Then he started his professional career as a manga artist.  This bus employed the design featured Hirokane's big hit comic series Shima Kosaku (『島耕作』) (1983-present).  His wife Fumi Saimon (柴門ふみ, 1957-) is also a very popular manga artist.
	yiw2012-005	(Wednesday 14 March) A Shima Kosaku bus
	yiw2012-008	(Wednesday 14 March) A Shima Kosaku bus
	yiw2012-009	(Wednesday 14 March) A Shima Kosaku bus
Kintai-kyo Brudge		The Kintai-kyo Bridge (錦帯橋) is a historical wooden arch bridge, in the city of Iwakuni, in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan.  The bridge was built in 1673, spanning the beautiful Nishiki River (錦川) in a series of five wooden arches, and the bridge is located on the foot of Mt. Yokoyama (横山), at the top of which lies Iwakuni-jo Castle (岩国城).  Declared a National Treasure in 1922, Kikkou Park (吉香公園), which includes the bridge and castle, is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Japan, especially for the cherry blossom festival in the spring and the autumn color change of the Japanese maples.     After Iwakuni-jo Castle was built in 1601 by Hiroie Kikkawa (吉川広家), the first lord of Iwakuni Domain, a series of wooden bridges were built, all of which were destroyed by floods several times before the construction of the iconic Kintai-kyo Bridge.  It was built in 1673 by the third lord, Hiroyoshi Kikkawa (吉川広嘉), new stone piers replaced the old wooden ones and it was thought to be flood-proof; however, the bridge was still destroyed by a flood the next year.  As a result, they redesigned the stone piers for greater strength, and a special tax was created to maintain the bridge.  This maintenance consisted of being rebuilt periodically: every 20 years for 3 spans in the middle, every 40 years for 2 spans connecting to the riverside.  In this way, the bridge was not destroyed by floods again until 1950 by flooding from typhoon "Kijia" (キジア台風).  It had been in a weakened state at the time, both because the Japanese had stopped maintaining the bridge during World War II and the year before the typhoon, to expand the US Marine Corps Air Station in Iwakuni, a large amount of gravel was taken by the US Military Force from the river around the bridge, strengthening the flow of the river.  In 1953, the bridge was once again reconstructed using very similar techniques to the original; however, they used metal nails (made from the same tatara iron as the Katana) to increase its durability.  This 1953 reconstruction, partially restored in 2001 and 2004, still stands today.     The bridge is composed by five sequential wooden arch bridges on four stone built piers as well as two of wooden piers on the dry riverbed where the bridge begins and ends.  Each of the three middle spans is 35.1 meters long, while the two end spans are 34.8 meters for a total length of about 175 meters with a width of 5 meters.  For nearly three hundred years the many versions of the bridge stood without the use of metal nails.  They achieved this by careful fitting of the wooden parts and by building up thick girders by clamping and binding them together with metal belts.  The main wooden parts of the bridge would then be covered by sheets of copper.  The shape and weight of the bridge made it extremely strong from the top, but incredibly weak from underneath, flood water rushing along the river would simply lift the bridge up and wash it downstream.  So the bridge was designed so that the wooden pathway merely "floats" on top of the frame of the bridge by using mortise and tenon joints.  This would allow rising flood waters to simply lift out the pathway and carry it off down stream while sparing the main structure.  Kintai-kyo Bridge is the name of this bridge it was built in 2007.  (Extracted from the site of "Wikipedia")
	yiw2012-016	(Wednesday 14 March) Kintai-kyo Bridge over Nishiki River
	yiw2012-021	(Wednesday 14 March) Kintai-kyo Bridge over Nishiki River
	yiw2012-022	(Wednesday 14 March) Kintai-kyo Bridge over Nishiki River
	yiw2012-028	(Wednesday 14 March) Kintai-kyo Bridge over Nishiki River
Iwakuni-jo Castle		Iwakuni-jo Castle (岩国城) was originally built at the top of the hill of Yokoyama (横山) by Hiroie Kikkawa (吉川広家) in 1601 (慶長6年) and demolished in 1615 (元和元年).  The present structure was reconstructed in 1962 (昭和37年).
	yiw2012-033	(Wednesday 14 March) Iwakuni-jo Castle viewed from Kintai-kyo Bridge over Nishiki River
Kikko Park		Kikko Park (吉香公園) is located in Yokoyama, Iwakuni City (岩国市横山) by Kintai-kyo Bridge over Nishiki River.
	yiw2012-043	(Wednesday 14 March) Statue of Sword Man Kojiro Sasaki (剣豪佐々木小次郎の像), Kikko Park.  Some people believe that the famous sword man was born in Iwakuni City.  The statue was built by Iwakuni-Nishi Rotary Club (岩国西ロータリークラブ) on 3 June, 1989.     See also the description about Ganryu-jima Island (巌流島) of the Shimonoseki City page.
	yiw2012-045	(Wednesday 14 March) Statue of Sword Man Kojiro Sasaki (剣豪佐々木小次郎の像), Kikko Park
	yiw2012-047	(Wednesday 14 March) Statue of Sword Man Kojiro Sasaki (剣豪佐々木小次郎の像), Kikko Park

        

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