Kokura

Kokura (小倉市, Kokura-shi) is an ancient castle town and the center of modern Kitakyushu, Japan.

Kokura is also the name of the penultimate station on the southbound San'yō Shinkansen line, which is owned by JR West.

Miyamoto Musashi, samurai swordsman, author of The Book of Five Rings and founder of the Hyoho Niten Ichi-ryū, famous for its use of two swords, lived in the Kokura castle under the patronage of the Ogasawara and Hosokawa clans briefly during 1634.

Since the mission commander Major Charles Sweeney had orders to drop the bomb visually and not by radar, he diverted to the secondary target, Nagasaki.

The city is the site of the main dojo (honbu) of Miyamoto Musashi's sword school, Hyoho Niten Ichi-ryū.

Kokura Castle in central Kokura
Kokura station
Isetan department store, Kokura
Emblem of Kokura
Miyamoto Musashi in his prime, wielding two bokken . Woodblock print by Utagawa Kuniyoshi
"Seishin Chokudō" (earnest heart, straight way) monument dedicated to Miyamoto Musashi at the foot of Kokura castle on the spot where Musashi is said to have lived.