Ikitsugi Well

This well located next to the Ako Information and Products Center is associated with the masterless samurai immortalized by tale of the Forty-Seven Ronin. The small well stands next to a four-meter-tall automaton clock on the northwestern corner of Oshiro-dori Street. It is said that Hayami Tozaemon and Kayano Sanpei, two retainers of the Ako Domain, quenched their thirst with water from the well as they rushed from the capital Edo to the home of Oishi Kuranosuke in 1701 to inform him about what had happened to their lord Asano Takuminokami Naganori at the palace. It is said the pair departed Edo on the evening of March 14th in an express palanquin and arrived at Ako Castle early in the morning on March 19th just four and a half days later, an astoundingly short time to complete a journey of approximately 620 kilometers.