Hagi

About Hagi
Hagi is a very well-conserved old town with about 50,000 inhabitants. The city is close to the southern tip of Japan's main island, Honshu. It takes time to get there, but it is worth the trouble! The location is beautiful, surrounded by sea and rivers, and the city is full of historic treasures.

Old samurai buildings and historic atmosphere
Hagi has a long history as one of the most important cities during the samurai period and as a hotbed of Japan's industrial revolution. Today, the city is no longer strategically important, but it is a true gem of historical evidence from some of Japan's most exciting periods. The absolute highlight is the UNESCO-protected area around the castle ruin, Hagi Castle Town. You can walk along the white walls and see the wooden houses where the samurai lived in the old days. You can even get inside some of them. Simply walking through the city is a memorable experience in itself. Here are many historic buildings just waiting to be discovered and explored. Finally, there are many hot springs where you can enjoy a relaxing bath as well as a beautiful beach by the city’s seaside.

Other attractions in Hagi
If you are interested in ceramics, you must visit some of the city's many workshops and see the famous local style, called hagi-yaki. It is regarded as Japan's second-finest ceramics (after raku), and is characterized by its subdued colours and by having a notch at the bottom. This originates back to the samurai era. The local ceramicists were obliged to give their finest products to the local samurai chief. That's why they deliberately “damaged” their pottery so they could sell it instead!