The Second Visit to Shimonoseki

In less than two days, I visited Shimonoseki for the second time. I first visited the city on my own Tuesday, the 23rd, and with Toastmasters Masaki Oshiumi and Rio Imamura of Kitakyushu Toastmasters Club Thursday, the 25th.

If I weren't a Taiwanese, I wouldn't have visited Bakan (old name of Shimonoseki) in the first place. I had a mixed feeling when I walked on Li Hung-chang Alley (李鴻章道) in Shimonoseki. The narrow and wanding Mr. Li Alley on the hill around the grand and luxurious Spring Sail House (春帆樓) was to protect Mr. Li from being attacked by ambushed Chinese and Taiwanese. Mr. Li signed the peace treaty with Japanese to give Taiwan away in 1895.

I learned more about the importance of Shimonoseki in Japanese history when I revisited this harbor city with two senior Toastmasters. I bet nobody can tell a story about Shimonoseki better than Toastmaster Imamura. He wrote an essay about Shimonoseki for his Alma Mater magazine in English four years ago as attached.

I'd like to express my gratitude to Rio and Masaki for showing me around Shimonoseki and Chofu. I know more stories about warring period in Japan. I became more interested in the modern history of Japan, China and Taiwan.

Kan-Mon Strait by Rio Imamura, Kitakyushu Toastmasters Club

There's an old Japanese proverb "He who controls "Kan-Mon" controls Westerly Japan. And there was actually a clan who carried the precepts into practice. The Ouchi Clan, in the 1500s developed Yamaguchi in Kyoto fashion, and it thrived until the Mohri Clan took it over.

Kan-Mon, a narrow strait famous for a rushing tide, is where Japan proper and Kyushu come within a stone's throw of each other, at the edge of the wide open Seto Inland Sea.

The name represents two cities sitting vis-à-vis; Kan, meaning a toll station Shimonoseki, the westernmost end of Japan proper, and Mon, representing Moji (short for a gate keeper) on the Kyushu Island. Moji today is a part of Kitakyushu City, as it merged with five other cities into one.

The wonder of the strait, about 10 kilometers long, is the change of current direction, 4 times a day. At full tide, the current runs east to west, while at low tide, the reverse way. The speed varies, according to season, from 0 to a maximum of 10 knots. In addition to light houses along the strait and bends, many guiding lights and floating buoys assist navigators. Kan-Mon enforces vessels over 10,000 tons to hire legal pilots. The Japanese Maritime Safety Agency cautions that collisions and other maritime accidents are frequent.

As the strategic cross point of the King's ocean lane between Kyoto (old capital of Japan) and Dazaifu (the old administrative capital of Kyushu), Kan-Mon Strait has seen myriads of historical events since the legendary days of Empress Jingu (AD 193). Japan had relations with the old three kingdoms of Korea and went to war with Shilla which rose in power from 300 to 500. Between 800 and 900, Japanese envoys to China in the Sui and Tung Dynasties headed for the East China Sea.

In 1185, the Heike Clan perished in the Dannoura (today's Shimonoseki) Sea Battle in a loss to the Genji Clan. The three sacred emblems of the royal court sank with the infant Emperor Antoku. Mongolian envoys made no return journeys through until Kublai Khan sent his troops to Hakata in 1274 and again 1281. Taiko Hideyoshi Toyotomi invaded Korea in 1592 and 1597.

Under the Tokugawa Shogunate, the Mohri Clan who sided with Toyotomi, in the last Tokugawa-Toyotomi Battle, was confined to a smaller province as an outsider lord and, an insider Ogasawara Clan arrived at Kokura Castle as the gate keeper to watch for the Mohri Clan as well as for the entire Kyushu occupied by many outsider clans like the Mohri Clan.

In the 1860s, many foreign vessels made port-calls at Shimonoseki. Not following Tokugawa Shogunate directives, the anti-foreign Mohri Clan in Shimonoseki started firing, without notice, at foreign vessels sailing through Kan-Mon and was revenged by 17 French, Dutch, British and American vessels, and eventually by the Tokugawas. However, at the dawn of the Meiji Restoration (1866-1868), it was the Mohri Clan who besieged the castle of the Ogasawara Clan in Kokura, now in Kitakyushu, and eventually deposed the Tokugawa days.

In 1895, a Treaty at Shimonoseki concluded the Sino-Japanese War.

In 1905, the ferry first operated between Shimonoseki and Pusan, Korea, till the end of WWII. During wartime, the Strait turned into a hazardous graveyard sea of mines and ships. Of the 12,000 mines laid around Japanese oceans by the Allied, 6,000 were targeted for Kan-Mon.

Today, four under-the-sea tunnels and one bridge connect Kan-Mon Strait requiring no more ferry ride. One of the four tunnels is for pedestrians only. Three others are as follows in the order of the opening year:

Opening Use Total length Under the sea
1942 Regular Trains 3,600 meters 1,140 meters
1958 Vehicles 3,460 meters 750 meters
1974 Bullet Trains 18,713 meters 880 meters

The reason the bullet train tunnel 4 times longer than the other two is because it is deeper than the others in fear of the possibility of earthquakes. The bullet train tunnel is 24 meters deep, while the other are two 7 meters. I have often traveled on the bullet train through the said tunnel. You feel not much of an impact as it takes only 15 seconds to cross through the tunnel.

The Kan-Mon Bridge was opened in 1973, one year before the bullet train tunnel. The length of the suspended bridge* is 1,068 meters and the clearance of the bridge from the sea level is 61 meters.

*Comparison with other suspension bridges

Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, Japan 3,991 meters (1998)
Humber Bridge, UK 1,410 meters (1981)
Verrazano Narrows Bridge, U.S. 1,298 meters (1964)
Golden Gate Bridge, U.S. 1,280 meters (1937)
George Washington Bridge, U.S. 1,067 meters (1931)

This year, Kitakyushu City added a new offshore airport like Kanku Airport readily serviceable 24 hours. The air and railroad passenger traffic will not be dealt here.

The average number of vessels sailing through Kan-Mon Strait is 700 daily. In 2001, the vehicles passing through the Kan-Mon Bridge and Kan-Mon Tunnel were 15 millions and 10 millions respectively. In view of the heavy traffic, there are voices calling for a second bridge.

Kan-Mon scenery fascinated me, although I am not a native. I decided to relocate here when my sister-in-law took me and my wife to Mekari Shrine overlooking Kan-Mon Bridge and Strait. My wife said she wished to come fishing here every week. It is 10 years almost passing and I shall soon become a full-fledged Kitakyushuan.

My Senpai (senior alumni) and a famous writer Ryotaro Shiba wrote: "My favorite is this Bakan (old name of Shimonoseki) Strait with quick streams. "Nature" should be moving to appeal humans. Here at Bakan, even big boats with foreign names wrestle with currents, in full engine and screw, overpowering and negating human life and events.

A vagabond Haikuist "Santoka" made the following Haiku here: "Revisiting Kan-Mon on another rainy day". We are in the rainy season right now. Santoka is gone but the rainy season returns.