Hiroshima

Hiroshima Prefecture occupies the middle of the San'yō coast, from the island-studded Seto Inland Sea in the south to the snowy Chūgoku Mountains on the border with Shimane. It is the economic centre of the Chūgoku region, with Hiroshima city as its largest metropolis and Fukuyama and Kure as industrial cities.

The prefecture is known worldwide for two places inscribed as World Heritage in 1996. The Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima city stands as a memorial to the first use of a nuclear weapon, on 6 August 1945. On the island of Miyajima, Itsukushima Shrine, rebuilt in its present form under Taira no Kiyomori in the twelfth century, appears to float on the sea at high tide.

The eastern half, the old province of Bingo, has a different character: the hillside temple town of Onomichi, the Edo-period port of Tomonoura and the Geiyo islands crossed by the Shimanami Kaido bridges and cycle route to Ehime. Inland lie the sake-brewing town of Saijō, the gorges of Sandankyō and Taishakukyō and farming valleys with a strong kagura tradition.

The name Hiroshima, "broad island", was given by Mōri Terumoto to the castle he founded in 1589 on the delta of the Ōta River, where the land was divided into islands by the river's branches. One explanation derives it from Ōe Hiromoto, ancestor of the Mōri, and from Fukushima Motonaga, a local guide; the more common reading simply describes the wide delta islands.

The prefecture unites the province of Aki, ruled in the Edo period by the Asano from Hiroshima, and the province of Bingo, divided between the Fukuyama domain and the Asano. Hiroshima Prefecture was set up in 1871; in 1876 the Bingo districts of the dissolved Oda Prefecture were transferred to it, giving it its present shape.

The land rises in steps from the coast: narrow coastal plains and river deltas, the Sera and other central plateaux at 200–600 metres, and the Chūgoku Mountains, where Mount Osorakan reaches 1,346 metres. Rivers such as the Ōta, Ashida and Nuta drain south to the Inland Sea, while the Gōnokawa flows north through Miyoshi into Shimane.

The coastline is deeply indented, and more than a hundred islands lie offshore, from Miyajima and Etajima in Hiroshima Bay to the Geiyo islands between Onomichi and Ehime. Limestone plateaux in the north-east have produced the natural bridge and gorge of Taishakukyō.

The coast has a mild Seto Inland Sea climate with relatively little rain, hot summers and dry, sunny winters. The northern mountains are much colder, with heavy snow on the Shimane border and several ski areas. The rainy season and typhoons can bring heavy rain and landslides on the steep granite slopes.

Aki and Bingo were important stages on the sea route through the Inland Sea. In the twelfth century Taira no Kiyomori, governor of Aki, made Itsukushima Shrine the tutelary shrine of his clan. In the sixteenth century Mōri Motonari rose from the small castle of Yoshida-Kōriyama to dominate western Japan, winning the decisive battle of Itsukushima in 1555; his grandson Terumoto founded Hiroshima castle town in 1589.

After Sekigahara the Mōri were moved to Hagi, and from 1619 the Asano ruled Aki from Hiroshima while the Mizuno founded Fukuyama. In the modern era Hiroshima became a military city and Kure one of the navy's great bases. On 6 August 1945 the atomic bomb destroyed Hiroshima city. Rebuilt as a city of peace, it became a designated city in 1980; the Shimanami Kaido opened in 1999.

Western Hiroshima is a heartland of Jōdo Shinshū Buddhism, whose followers here are known as Aki-monto, and this devotion has shaped customs from grave lanterns to the Buddhist altar craft. The mountain districts are known for a lively form of kagura, performed with fast drumming and elaborate costumes at autumn festivals, and for the rice-planting ritual of Mibu, listed by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Memory of the atomic bombing is central to the prefecture's modern identity, expressed in the annual Peace Memorial Ceremony, the paper cranes associated with Sasaki Sadako and a strong peace-education tradition. Saijō, in Higashi-Hiroshima, is one of Japan's renowned sake towns, with breweries along a single street.

Hiroshima Bay is Japan's leading area for farmed oysters, and the layered Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki is the prefecture's most famous dish. The islands grow citrus, above all lemons, and the inland basin of Saijō brews soft, rounded sake with its local water.

Hiroshima is the industrial centre of the Chūgoku region. Car manufacturing is led by Mazda, headquartered in Fuchū next to Hiroshima city, with a wide supplier network. Kure, Onomichi and the islands build ships, Fukuyama has one of Japan's largest steelworks, and electronics and machinery are widespread. Oysters, citrus and sake are important products, and tourism centres on Miyajima and the Peace Memorial Park.