Iwakuni City 岩国市

Castle town since 1603 with over 128,000 inhabitants today, located south of Hiroshima City on the Seto Inland Sea. Iwakuni is famous for its five-humped “silver brocade belt” Kintai-kyô, the 193-meter-long arched bridge over the Nishikigawa river commissioned by the sovereign KIKKAWA Hiroyoshi – completely without nails. The original was swept away by a flood in 1950. Today, the bridge connects the old town with the Kikkô park to the west of the river and the samurai quarter within it.