Uwajima
Uwajima is centered around the Uwajima Castle on a hill. Above the city towers the massive Mt. Onigajo (Devil’s Castle). Uwajima sits in a bay with a complex topology of islands and inlets, making it a very picturesque city between the mountains and the sea, and equally part of both. The city has an illustrious history as the feudal seat of Date Masamune, a lord who promoted Uwajima as a center of industry, education, and culture.
Uwajima is the site of a sexual power spot, an unusual fertility shrine called Taga Shrine, which features an improbably large phallus carved from a log. Next to the shrine is a graphic sex museum, prohibited to minors, with artifacts and paintings from around the world. Photographers must pay an extraordinary 20,000 yen if they wish to take photos.
Uwajima Castle is one of only twelve original castles that survived intact from the Edo Period (1603-1867). The small but atmospheric castle was built around the turn of the 17th century and was later refurbished when the Date family took over ownership in 1615. The castle stands on a hill which was situated just by the sea in the past, but land reclamation along the coast has resulted in it standing further inland today.
Visitors can approach the castle's keep starting from the north or south. The respective routes travel uphill on flights of stone steps meandering past moss covered stone walls and leading through the forest, which comprises of an interesting variety of vegetation. About halfway up the hill along the northern approach stands the Yamazato Soko, a storehouse built relatively recently in 1845. The structure now serves as a small museum, exhibiting festival props, craft tools, an old rickshaw and other items, and is free to enter.
After a 10-15 minute climb, visitors will reach the castle's three storied main keep at the hill's flat-topped summit. The keep's authentic wooden interior is well-preserved, and climbing up two floors worth of steep wooden stairs to the top floor rewards visitors with good views over Uwajima City. There are some exhibits within the main keep, such as armors and swords belonging to past feudal lords, as well as portraits of them.
Uchiko
Uchiko with an estimated population of 15,554 was part of ancient Iyo Province and prospered since ancient times as an important transportation hub on the Ōzu Highway and as a transit point for the Shikoku Pilgrimage. During the Edo period, the area was part of the holdings of Ōzu Domain or its semi-subsidiary, Niiya Domain. The Yokaichi and Gokoku districts still retain some vestige of Uchiko’s former glory. In the Yokaichi and Gokoku districts is a street of merchant houses, which have solemn white or cream coloured plaster walls, lattices, decorative walls and old-style Japanese desks.
Yokaichi is comprised of about 90 buildings along a single street. Two of these buildings are open to the public as museums, the largest and most impressive of which is the Kamihaga Residence. A combination ticket for Kamihaga Residence, the Uchiko-za kabuki theater and the Uchiko History Museum is sold for 900 yen from any of those locations.
