Kikugahama Dorui (Onago Daiba)

This Municipal Historic Site includes about 50 meters of earthen defense work, standing three meters high and 12 meters wide. In 1863, the Sonno-Joi movement of reverence for the Emperor was spreading throughout the Choshu domain, and ships from Western countries were attacked by cannons from Shimonoseki as they passed through the Kanmon strait. The people of Hagi felt this meant there was need to defend the castle town on their own, and the rulers ordered earthwork defenses built along the Sea of Japan at Kikugahama beach. The young and old people left in the town went to work regardless of their status, wealth or age, and the particularly great efforts of the samurai wives and ladies-in-waiting in building the earthworks earned it the nickname Onago Daiba (Ladies' Fort).