Chūgoku

The Chūgoku region occupies the western end of Honshu, from the borders of Hyogo to the Kanmon Straits facing Kyushu. It is a region of two coasts. San'in, "the shade of the mountains", faces the Sea of Japan and is made up of Tottori, Shimane and the north of Yamaguchi: thinly populated, with snowy winters, sand dunes, lagoons and some of Japan's oldest shrines. San'yō, "the sunny side of the mountains", faces the Seto Inland Sea and contains Okayama, Hiroshima and southern Yamaguchi, where most of the population, industry and the Shinkansen line are concentrated.

The region's history spans the ancient kingdom of Kibi in Okayama and the myth-laden province of Izumo in Shimane, the Taira and the battle of Dan-no-ura, the Mōri warlords and the Chōshū domain that led the Meiji Restoration. In the twentieth century Hiroshima became the first city destroyed by an atomic bomb, and its Peace Memorial is one of four World Heritage properties in the region, alongside Itsukushima Shrine, the Iwami Ginzan silver mine and the Hagi components of the Meiji industrial sites.

For visitors, Chūgoku combines well-known destinations such as Hiroshima, Miyajima and Kurashiki with less-travelled places: the castle towns of Matsue, Hagi and Tsuwano, the Oki Islands and the karst of Akiyoshidai. Bridges from Okayama and Onomichi link it with Shikoku.

The Chūgoku Mountains run the length of the region as a broad upland of old, rounded ridges mostly between 1,000 and 1,300 metres, with isolated volcanoes such as Daisen (1,729 m) and Sanbe standing on the San'in side. South of the watershed lie the Kibi and other plateaux, cut by rivers such as the Takahashi and Ōta, which end in coastal plains on the Inland Sea.

The San'in coast is fairly straight, with dunes at Tottori, the lagoons of Nakaumi and Lake Shinji, and rocky shores; the Oki Islands lie offshore. The San'yō coast is deeply indented and fronted by hundreds of islands. In the west, Yamaguchi's Akiyoshidai is Japan's largest karst plateau.

San'yō has a Seto Inland Sea climate, sheltered by mountains on both sides: mild, with relatively low rainfall and many sunny days, which is why Okayama calls itself the Land of Sunshine. San'in has a Sea of Japan climate, with grey, damp winters and substantial snow inland and on Daisen. The mountains in between are cold and snowy in winter, and the whole region can be affected by the rainy season and typhoons.

In antiquity the region hosted two of Japan's great regional powers: Kibi, whose huge keyhole tombs rival those of the Yamato heartland, and Izumo, whose myths fill about a third of the Kojiki's book of the gods and whose bronze hoards were discovered in the 1980s and 1990s. Under the ritsuryō state the San'yōdō highway linked the capital with Kyushu along the Inland Sea, and the San'indō followed the Sea of Japan coast.

The Taira rose to power partly through their control of the Inland Sea and made Itsukushima their clan shrine; their fall at Dan-no-ura in 1185 ended the Genpei War. In the sixteenth century the Ōuchi, the Amago and finally the Mōri dominated the region. After Sekigahara the Mōri were confined to Chōshū, where their resentment of the Tokugawa fed the movement that toppled the shogunate in 1868. Modern Chūgoku became an industrial belt along the San'yō coast, and Hiroshima's destruction on 6 August 1945 made it a global symbol of the atomic age.

Chūgoku's cultures differ markedly between its coasts. San'in keeps ancient shrine traditions, Izumo mythology, kagura dance and the craft revival of the mingei movement, and Matsue retains a refined tea culture. San'yō is more urban and commercial, with a tradition of Inland Sea ports, sake brewing in Saijō and Bizen and Hagi pottery among the country's most prized wares. Kagura is especially strong in the mountains of Hiroshima and Shimane.

The region's food reflects both seas: snow crab and shijimi clams in San'in; oysters, conger eel and sea bream on the Inland Sea; fugu at Shimonoseki; and fruit such as white peaches and pears. Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki is its best-known everyday dish.