Southern Gifu

Hi,

I like to visit historical places in Sengoku period in Japan and been to the area.
Inuyama castle in north Aichi-ken is worth. It is a national treasure and has the one of the oldest castle towers.
Meiji-mura park near the castle is nice. It will take a half day to visit every places.
Sunomata castle is not good. The real location is not clear.

Ogaki castle is small, but better than Sunomata. One of the battles in Sekigahara happened.
Gifu castle has no old buildings. It is on the top of Mt. Gifu. You can enjoy good view using ropeway.

In terms of Sekigahara, Sekigahara town history museum has some exhibition.
It would help to explore the field. I do not remember English explanation is there.
Sekigahara itself is not so interesting place. Nothing remains.
I rent a bicycle at the Sekighara station and ran around. It took three hours.
From the bases of Kuroda Nagamasa and Ishida Mitsunari, you can see the field well.
To visit both and the small museum takes less than two hours with bycle.
If you read the story of the big battle in advance, you would enjoy better.

Fuwa no seki, the official checking point in Heian period is near Sekigahara.
But, nothing remains.

I recommend Tanigumi-san Kegon-ji temple.
It is the last point of Kansai/Chubu thirty three temples pilgrimage.
Many people visit everyday and it has pilgrim village.

I do not know cheap accommodation at the region.

Thank you very much BT21!!

I have actually been to Inuyama before - twice! - so this trip is going to focus on places in Gifu-ken to the west of Inuyama, where I've only ever passed through before. I can also read Japanese, so information in English is not necessary.

Sunomata hadn't really piqued my interest, so I'm happy to give it a miss. I definitely want to climb up to Gifu Castle, whatever it is that's there these days. Apart from the castle, is there anything else of interest in Gifu City? And thanks for the tip about Kegon-ji, it looks interesting, I'll try and see if it's feasible to visit. Do you know if there's anything else of interest nearby, or at least along the same railway line?

I'm not expecting there to be anything at Sekigahara - it was just a battlefield, though I guess it would be interesting if they've recovered artifacts from the battle. I suppose the interest there would be to take in the scenery, and try and get a feel for the geography of the battle site. I'm much happier walking than on a bicycle. But I do need to read up more on the battle before I visit.

The Heian era gate certainly interests me! What is up at the Fuwa no seki site, just a marker to tell you that it was there?

Anyway. Thanks a lot again for your information.

Hi, Giora,
I also have been to the Inuyama castle twice.
Near Gifu JR station, there is Gifu City Tower building that has a free observation area.
Near Gifu castle, Gifu city museum and Gifu Daibutu temple(big budda), Soho-ji temple is there.
I have been to both and they are not so impressive.
Gifu river is famous for Ukai, fishing with Cormorant. The season is over this year. In summer, every night, tourists boats depart.
The museum is new and opposite side of the Gifu river.

You can go to Kegon-ji by buses from Tanigumi guchi station of Tarumi railway or Ibi station of Yoro railway.
Both trains depart from Ogaki station.
The buses does not run fluently. Check time table in advance, if you use.
I can not find any interesting places along with the railways.

Sekigahara battle field is now local town with rice field.
If you like criming, Mt. Matsuo might be good. It was base of Kobayaka Hideaki.
His decision to attack the West determined the battle.

Fuwano seki gate is in Nara era not Heian. Sorry for my misunderstanding.
It is famous of the Jinsin civil war battle field in 672 AD.
After death of Tenchi emperor, his son and his brother had successor war.
The brother won and became Tenmu emperor. The son, prince did suicide.
Tenmu emperor made three gates to control traffic. One of them is Fuwano seki.
A small museum of Fuwano seki is near the gate locaton. Gate no longer remains.

As I wrote, Sekigahara is very important place in Japan history.
Main roads such as Tokaido, Isekaido, Hokkokukaido pass this area, because it is only place to cross Suzuka and Ibuki mountains. Then, Shinkansen and JR lines were constructed here.
Also, army corps gathered using the above roads and the plain became battle fields.

When I use Shinkansen trains, I usually see the Sekigahara battle field from the window.

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