was a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

located in Kamo District,

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui has b ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. The town is the administrative center of

Higashihiroshima 270px, Sake Brewers in Saijō 270px, Panorama from Saijō Station 270px, Aerial view of Saijō area of Higashihiroshima is a city located in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 190,186 in 90,294 households a ...

History

From the earliest times, the fertile region around Saijō (part of the ancient province of Aki) has been occupied, as displayed by the Mitsushiro ''Kofun'' (a 5th-century burial mound) and the Aki- Kokubunji (Aki-Kokubun temple) from the 8th century. It benefited from its location on the

San'yōdō is a Japanese geographical term. It means both an ancient division of the country and the main road running through it. The San'yōdō corresponds for the most part with the modern conception of the San'yō region. This name derives from the i ...

linking the capital with

Kyūshū is the third-largest island of Japan's four main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands (i.e. excluding Okinawa and the other Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Islands). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regio ...

, but the benefit was double-edged as its communications and proximity to the sea meant it was heavily embroiled in the

Sengoku period The was the period in History of Japan, Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as th ...

struggles between the clans of western

Honshū , historically known as , is the largest of the four main islands of Japan. It lies between the Pacific Ocean (east) and the Sea of Japan (west). It is the seventh-largest island in the world, and the second-most populous after the Indonesian ...

. During the later Edo period, Saijō was a post-town on the San'yōdō and home to a government office. In 1974 the Kamo District towns of Saijō, Hachihonmatsu, Shiwa and Takaya were combined to form

, the twelfth city in Hiroshima Prefecture. In April 1973, Saijō was chosen as the home of the (largely) relocated Hiroshima University, with the relocation occurring between 1982 and 1995. The relocation of the university and the establishment of the Hiroshima Central Technopolis (since 1984) has created many jobs and intellectual opportunities, a new communications network (Saijō was made part of the Sanyo

Shinkansen The , colloquially known in English as the bullet train, is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan. It was initially built to connect distant Japanese regions with Tokyo, the capital, to aid economic growth and development. Beyond lon ...

in October 1993) and has put the area on the technology map, but has also seen much of the green-field areas eaten up as the population of Higashihiroshima City soared to 100,000 (August 1992).

Sake

Saijō is famed for

sake Sake, , or saki, also referred to as Japanese rice wine, is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indeed any East Asi ...

(rice wine). Within the narrow streets of the Sakagura Dori ("Sake Storehouse Road") area near JR Saijō Station are the

Namako wall ''Namako'' wall or ''Namako-kabe'' (sometimes misspelled as ''Nameko'') is a Japanese wall design widely used for vernacular architecture, vernacular houses, particularly on fireproof storehouses by the latter half of the Edo period. The ''namak ...

(white-lattice walled) and (red-roof tile) roofs of ten well-known sake breweries; Chiyonoharu, Fukubijin, Hakubotan, Kamoki, Kamoizumi, Kamotsuru, Kirei, Saijotsuru, Sakurafubuki, and Sanyotsuru. From July 1995, Saijō was made the home of the Brewery Laboratory of the National Tax Office. Each October there is also the Saijō Sake Matsuri 酒まつり (Sake Festival) which draws crowds of between 100,000-200,000 revelers and sake connoisseurs before the brewing season (October–March) begins.

References

External links

Sake Festival

Hiroshima Cricket Club

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saijo, Hiroshima (Kamo) Dissolved municipalities of Hiroshima Prefecture Higashihiroshima