Bair_the_Normal
転輪聖王
An Inspection of the Varied Settlements of the Many Lands of the Hirajima Kingdom
Spoiler Map :
Of the Seven Circuits:
Of San'indō [Northern Mountain Circuit]:
-The city of Izumo, spanning the expansive plains between Lake Shinji and the Sea of Japan, is particularly notable for its housing of the largest Kannagara shrine outside the Kinai capital region. Despite its poor soil, Izumo maintains a modest trade economy, connecting the other cities of the San'indō, as well as generating significant pilgrimage related income.
-The city of Uchikoshiyama is a planned city notable solely for its newly constructed [478 CE] castle, its lucrative rest stop and storage depot position along the Northern Mountain Road, and its Chinese-influenced grid pattern that is found across many government-planned cities across the Kingdom.
-The city of Izushi is the cultural and economic heart of the San'indō, due to its proximity to the capital region and several populous cities surrounding the capital region. Being the eastern terminus of the Northern Mountain Road, Izushi acts as a liaison between the cultures and styles of the San'indō and the eastern portion of the Hirajima Kingdom. Due to their domains material wealth, the lords of Izushi were historically able to construct a vast defensive system of castles and forts along the mountainous areas surrounding the city, which still remains as one of its striking idiosyncrasies. In addition to its varied mountain forts, Izushi is also noted for its intricate potters culture and its development of buckwheat noodles, much to the joy of the rest of the Hirajima Kingdom.
Of San'yōdō [Southern Mountain Circuit]:
-The city of Ōwada is one of the premier ports along the Inland Sea as well as the eastern terminus for the Southern Mountain Road. It is notable for its status as one of the premier departure points for Imperial Embassies to China and the Ryūkyū Islands. Nearby is the Ikuta Shrine in which is enshrined the kami Wakahirume. As such, Ōwada is also home to a great number of Kannagara festivals and regularly receives pilgrims as well.
-The city of Itsukushima spans almost the entirety of the island of Itsukushima, and can thus be said to be one of the largest cities in the Kingdom. Of particular note on the island are the many shrines and temples that dot the city, the most famous of which is the eponymous Itsukushima Shrine. Aside from the religious structures, however, the natural beauty of the island is mostly untouched, settlement being centered around the coastal rim of the island, leaving the interior forests primarily pristine. Due to its island location, Itsukushima is not directly connected by the Southern Mountain Road to other San'yōdō cities.
-The city of Akamagaseki is the southernmost city on the main island of the Hirajima Kingdom. It is also the southwestern terminus of the Southern Mountain Road. Prior to the Hirajima conquest of the Tsukushi island and the Kumaso tribes and kingdoms, Akamagaseki, then known as simply Akamaga, was a quiet, small fishing town notable only for its prized but deadly cuisine, pufferfish. With the advent of the introduction of the Western Sea Circuit, however, Akamaga, which subsequently added seki, or gate, to its name, was transformed into a vibrant trade hub, and has developed into the premier transit rest stop between the city of Dazaifu and the mainland Hirajima circuits.
-The city of Himeji is notable solely for its position along the Southern Mountain Road, and apart from that is a slowly growing agricultural town with a small fort. An as of yet mostly untapped iron deposit has been located north of the city, though the Kingdom has yet to put any direct effort in harnessing it.
Of Hokurikudō [Northern Land Circuit]:
-The city of Ōkōzu is a quickly growing port city at the mouth of the Ōkawa River. Founded by the Imperial Court in 444 CE as a planned city, the grid pattern of the Port between the Rivers [the aforementioned Ōkawa and the southern Shinano] is crosshatched with several orderly canals that connect the two rivers which provide irrigation to the rice and buckwheat fields surrounding the city. In addition, Ōkōzu is the northeastern terminus of the Northern Land Road, and serves as a gateway between the Hirajima Kingdom proper and the Kingdom of the Emishi in the north.
-The city of Fukui is a densely populated but small city that is notable for its rest-stop position along the Northern Land Road as well as its significant influence in Hirajimas silk and textile industries.
-The city of Etchū, which spans the Toyama plain, is the definitive agricultural center of the Hirajima Kingdom, as well as the second largest city in the entire Kingdom. Long afflicted by rudimentary urban sprawl and the lack of a unified or even effective sanitation system, Etchūs immense growth is attributed solely to its unparalleled agricultural output. With rice being the primary currency and premier medium in the Hirajima economy, it was actually in Etchū, with its agricultural significance, that a rudimentary system of loans, debts, and credit was established across the many rice markets that spanned the city and plain. The varied agricultural products of Etchū are promulgated to the rest of the Kingdom via the Northern Land Road to other roads.
-The city of Kawanakajima is situated on the Shinano River and is notable solely for its status as a gateway city between the Northern Land Circuit and the Eastern Mountain Circuit.
Of Tōsandō [Eastern Mountain Circuit]:
-The city of Umayabashi is a small rest-stop in the Eastern Mountain Circuit that serves as the junction between the Eastern Mountain Road, the Eastern Sea Road, and the Northern Land Circuit. As such, there is a large stable in the city to facilitate and accommodate a great number of travelers, as well as a large, well-maintained bridge crossing the Tone River [in fact, it is these two distinguishing features that form Umayabashis name; umaya meaning stable and hashi meaning bridge].
-The city of Asaka is a relatively poor, undeveloped, and isolated agricultural outpost owned directly by the Kingdom with little to note other than being the northeastern terminus of the Eastern Mountain Road, as well as another entryway from the Emishi Kingdom to the Hirajima Kingdom.
-The city of Imahama is located on the northeastern shore of Lake Biwa, near the most densely-populated heartland of the capital region. A sizable settlement itself, Imahama is located on notoriously poor soil and is entirely reliant on rice imports, particularly from Etchū in Hokurikudō. On the other hand, Imahama is famed for its status as a center of metallurgy in the Kingdom. The fires of hundreds of forges burn nigh continuously through Imahama nights, supplying the Imperial Army its weaponry and armor, and the farmers and craftsmen across the Kingdom their tools.
-The city of Matsumoto is another rest-stop town along the Eastern Mountain Circuit, and its only highlights are its clean water, hot springs, picturesquely forested mountains, and its growth of nearly 90% of Hirajimas wasabi crop.
Of Saikaidō [Western Sea Circuit]:
-The city of Dazaifu is the southernmost port in the Hirajima Kingdom, and also one of the largest due to its westwards direction. With its strategic location, Dazaifu is the premier port for external trade, and regularly receives influxes of Korean and Chinese goods and ideas. It was through Dazaifu that silk, tea, and Chinese-style planned city structures, not to mention the Chinese character system that would later evolve into the Heira Syllabaries. Dazaifu is the largest settlement on the Western Sea Circuit, and is also the northern terminus of the Western Sea Road.
-The city of Ōmura is the only other city of note in the relatively undeveloped and recently conquered Western Sea Circuit. It is notable for its sheltered port situated on the Ōmura Bay and its similar sustained trade routes with Korea and China. Due to this large amount of foreign-trade through Ōmura, the city is home to a burgeoning population of Koreans and Chinese, particularly those looking to espouse Buddhist schools of thought. Due to its peninsular position, Ōmura is not connected to the main Western Sea Road, which instead continues down to the Kumaso capital of Sakura.
Of Nankaidō [Southern Sea Circuit]:
-The city of Naniwa is the old cultural center of the Hirajima Kingdom. A hub port that is also home to a significant rice-growing industry, Naniwa is perhaps the absolute oldest city in the Kingdom. A testament to its cultural and economic significance, the Imperial Summer Court is held biennially in Naniwa. In addition to its status as a major port, Naniwa is also the city that connects the Southern Mountain Road, the Southern Sea Mainland Road, and the various capital roads, thus rending it a key economic and social hub in the Kingdom.
-The city of Iyo is a small port that houses several famous hot springs, several famous temples, and little more.
-The city of Tokushima is a small agricultural town that produces a variety of goods and is the premier agricultural producer in the southwest of the Kingdom.
Of Tōkaidō [Eastern Sea Circuit]:
-The city of Anōtsu is middling port town and post station on the Eastern Sea Road in mild decline due to the rise of Hamamatsu as a more significant and superior port.
-The city of Ise is named after and is only famous for its massive shrine, to which flock pilgrims by the thousands annually. The city itself is poor in soil and as a port, but its prestige as a religious center is able to keep afloat a moderately large village and post station.
-The bay and river port of Hamamatsu is by far the largest city in the Eastern Sea Circuit as well as a key port and a significant rest-stop on the Eastern Sea Road. Hamamatsu is another government-ordained city, being constructed on a similar grid pattern in 477 CE, and having grown spectacularly due to a lucrative trade and fishing industry.
-The city of Suruga is the administrative center of the Eastern Sea Circuit and is notable for being a particularly lucrative fishing port. Since the introduction of tea, plantations around Suruga have been quick to grow and sell the quickly blossoming new crop, and as such Suruga is known as the tea center of Hirajima.
-The town of Karasuyama is small, dirty, and poor settlement in the undeveloped eastern region of the Eastern Sea Circuit only notable for its status as the temporary eastern terminus for the as of yet unfinished Eastern Sea Road.
Of the Vassal Domains:
Of Tsukai-kuni:
-The port of Tsushima is a small settlement known for housing the Tsukai Royal Court as well as being a transit stop on the lucrative trade route between Dazaifu, Ōmura, and the Korean Kingdom of Silla.
Of Kumaso-kuni:
-The city of Sakura is named after its eastern volcano of Sakurajima. After the mountains catastrophic eruption in 490 CE, the city was reconstructed and renovated with a similar style to the Chinese grids established across the Hirajima Kingdom. As such, Sakura, the de facto capital of the Kumaso Kingdom, is perhaps the most modern city throughout Kumaso and even the Western Sea Circuit.
Of Emishi-kuni:
-The fort of Iwadeyama is the de facto Hirajima administrative center in the Emishi Kingdom. There is little favorable about its location other than the recent discovery of gold in the hills north of the fort.
-The city of Shiwa is the de jure capital of the Emishi Kingdom, though with the relative lack of development in the north compared to other regions of the Hirajima Kingdom, actual administrative clout and architectural development has been limited in Shiwa. With the Emishi Kingdom lacking any uniform road system, it is the Kitakami River that connects Shiwa to other Emishi and Hirajima cities.
-Fort Hachinohe is the farthest north settlement directly owned by the Hirajima Kingdom in the Emishi Kingdom. Given its out-of-the-way status and the lack of development that characterizes much of the Emishi Kingdom, Hachinohes only connection with the rest of the Hirajima regions proper is through the small Hachinohe Port, which primarily services the forts fledgling fishing industry.
-The town of Jizōden is an ethnically purely Emishi town on the west coast of the Emishi Kingdom, notable solely for its relatively high population for Emishi cities and for its significant agricultural production relative to other northern cities.
-The city of Hiramori is the farthest north settlement in the entirety of the Hirajima Kingdom and its Vassal Domains. The city is populated entirely by ethnic Emishi and is renowned for the quality of its seafood. The Hirajima Kingdom has been looking to Hiramori as a potential trading post with the Ainu tribes and petty kingdoms to the north.
ﾉ☀️
