ABSTRACT
Description: A castle town, formerly the headquarters of the powerful Matsudaira family, noted for its traditional buildings and crafts.
Site Office: Tourist Information Center 1-1 Ekimae-machi Aizu-Wakamatsu, Fukushima Japan (0242) 32-0688
Like many other ancient cities, the origins and early devel opment of Aizu-Wakamatsu are obscure, except for scraps of legend. The word "Aizu" itself, which is written with two Chinese characters meaning "meeting" and, puzzlingly, "har bor," refers to a legendary event said to have taken place near the present site of the city in 88 B.C. This meeting was between Ohiko and Takenukawa-wake, two famous generals who were sent to Tohoku by the equally legendary Emperor Sujin; the generals were given the job of establishing peace after the completion of their campaigns against the rebellious people of the region. The name now refers not only to the city itself but also to the area around it, which was governed from the city by a series of feudal lords over a period of approxi mately 700 years. Like other centers of population in the outlying regions of Japan, far from the more complex social and economic developments of central Honshū, AizuWakamatsu was for centuries a sort of military outpost; amid frequent conflict, it was a city of warriors, and of merchants subordinate to them, who exercised their power over the farmers of the surrounding countryside. Unfortunately, little is known for certain about this relatively remote area before 1192, when Minamoto Yoritomo established the first of a series of military regimes, the shōgunates, which were to govern Japan almost uninterruptedly until 1868. Aizu, like other settlements that became domainal centers, probably existed as a market town and strategic base for regional warlords several centuries before Yoritomo's rule.
