Kokura
Template:Short description Template:Distinguish
.svg)
Template:Nihongo is an ancient castle town and the center of modern Kitakyushu, Japan. Kokura is also the name of the penultimate station on the southbound San'yō Shinkansen line, which is owned by JR West.
History
Template:Further Template:More citations needed section
Edo period
The Ogasawara and Hosokawa clans were daimyō at Kokura Castle during the Edo period (1603–1868). Miyamoto Musashi, samurai swordsman, author of The Book of Five Rings and founder of the Hyoho Niten Ichi-ryū, famous for its use of two swords, lived in the Kokura castle under the patronage of the Ogasawara and Hosokawa clans briefly during 1634.
Meiji period
After the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate, Kokura was the seat of government for Kokura Prefecture. When the municipal system of cities, towns and villages was introduced, Kokura Town was one of 25 towns in the prefecture, which later merged with Fukuoka Prefecture. Kokura was elevated to city status as Template:Nihongo in 1900.
World War II
Kokura was the primary target for the "Fat Man" atomic bomb on August 9, 1945, but on the morning of the raid, the city was obscured by morning fog. Kokura had also been mistaken for the neighboring city of Yahata the day before by the reconnaissance missions. Since the mission commander Major Charles Sweeney had orders to drop the bomb visually and not by radar, he diverted to the secondary target, Nagasaki. The planes, however, did fly over Kokura and were extremely close to executing the mission drop.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Post-war
Kokura was merged with four other cities to form Kitakyushu in 1963. It constituted the Kokura ward of the new city until 1974, when it was divided into Kokura Kita ward in the north, and Kokura Minami ward in the south.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Notable residents
- Matsumoto Seichō – writer
- Miyamoto Musashi – swordsman and rōnin
- Mori Ōgai – physician, translator, novelist and poet
- Tetsuya Theodore Fujita – Meteorologist, lived in Kokura during World War II
- Leiji Matsumoto, mangaka
Notable figures born in Kokura
- Tsukasa Hojo, mangaka
- Masumi Mitsui, 10th Battalion, CEF.
- Linda Yamamoto, singer and J-pop idol
- Satoru Nomura, yakuza godfather, leader of the Kudo-kai
Festivals
The Gion Festival of Kokura is called the "Gion of Drums" and celebrates the life of local folk-hero Muhomatsu.
Notable facts
The city is the site of the main dojo (honbu) of Miyamoto Musashi's sword school, Hyoho Niten Ichi-ryū.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>