Gifu and Ogaki (off Tokyo): May 4, 2018

I walked around Gifu City during my Nakasendo walk.

Gifu is famous for Oda Nobunaga, a hero who ended Japan’s medieval period and opened a way to the early modern period in the 16^th century. He is often seen as the greatest figure in Japanese history.

The Gufu castle was built on the top of Mt. Kinkazan (Mt. Inabayama). It is 329 meters high. (See also the top photo)

The castle was originally built as in the 12^th century. Oda Nobunaga took the castle in 1567 and developed the castle as a symbol of his power.

The castle was later destroyed in the early 17^th century. A modern concrete castle was made in the 1950s.

There were so many visitors in the area as it is the golden Week holiday season. People needed to wait more than an hour to take a ropeway to the top. I walked up a steep mountainous way.

There was a house of Oda Nobunaga at the foot of the mountain. It is now a park.

The Nagara River flows in the city. It is one of the three large rivers which flow into Ise Bay.

The scene from the top of Gifu Castle was beautiful. (See the 2nd photo from the top)

There is a tradition of catching fish using trained cormorants in the river. It is now performed for tourists.

Old buildings remain along the river near the castle.

Yanagase used to be the busiest shopping areas. It is now less busy. I saw small number of shoppers in the streets.

I found that the buses were painted with Oda Nobunaga.

I also visited Ogaki City, the second biggest city in Gifu Prefecture. It is known as a city of water, Ogaki Castle and haiku poet Matsuo Baho.

The city was surrounded with canals. They used to be the moats of Ogaki Castle.

They operated tub boats for the tourists. The water was clean. (See also the 3rd photo from the top)

Matsuo Basho finished his Oku-no-hosomich travel here. Basho traveled from Edo (Tokyo) through Tohoku and Hokuriku areas to Ogaki in 1689 and created many haiku poems. It was about 2000 kilometer distance.

The statues of him and his supporter stand at the side of a moat.

Some of his haiku poems were curved in the stones.

Ogaki Castle was one of the important castles as strategic points in the 16^th century. 

We can see Sekigahara, a famous battle fields, from the top of the castle.