KOBE-HYOGO
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Kobe was until 1892 the forcign port of the adjoining town of Hyogo and was opened to foreign trade in 1868, but in 1899 the two towns were incorporated under the title of Kobe City, when the City Municipal Law was put into force. The port is finely situated on the Idzumi-nada, at the gate of the far-famed Inland Sea. The harbour is good and affords safe anchorage for vessels of almost any size, but to extend the facilities for loading and discharging an extensive scheme of harbour improvement was begun in 1907. The two towns face the land-locked water covered with white sails, while behind, at a distance of about a mile, riscs a range of picturesque and lofty hills, some of which attain an altitude of about 3,000 feet, and the steep sides of which are partly covered with pines. On one of these hills, Rokkosan, are a number of foreign residences, the place having become a favourite summer resort. The summit of this hill has been well prepared for the purpose, several miles of excellent paths making walking on the hills easy and enjoyable. Among the attractions of Rokkosan are excellent golf links. Kobe and Hyogo stretch for some five miles along the strip of land between the hills and the water, and the former is rapidly extending in the direction of Osaka, which is connected with Kobe by the Hanshin Electric Railway. What was at one time known as the foreign settlement at Kobe is well laid out; the streets are broad and clean, and lighted with gas. The Bund has a fine stone embankment and extends the whole length of the foreign business quarter, but the extensive reclamations in the harbour tend to destroy its character. Within the last year or two the Japanese have bought many of the Settlement lots and have erected large offices of five or six stories, which have greatly improved the city. The railway terminus is at the other end of Kobe, where it meets Hyogo, and there are extensive carriage works adjoining the station, but the foreign section of the city is best reached from Sannomiya Station. There are three Clubs-the Kobe Club (British, but including members of all nationalities), the Masonic Club, and the Oriental Club (Indian). At Mirume the K. R. & A. C. have a fine boathouse and large lawn for all kinds of sports. The Union Protestant Church and, a French Roman Catholic Church are in the Settlement. An English Episcopal Church, All Saints, was opened in 1898 on the hill behind, and there are several native Protestant churches. There are several foreign hotels in the city. the principal being the Oriental and the Tor. The former is now owned by the Toyo Kisen Kaisha, the Japanese shipping company, and compares favourably with any hotel in the Far East. Two foreign daily papers, the Japan Chronicle and the Kobe Herald, and one weekly, the Japan Weekly Chronicle, are published in Kobe. There are, also, two native papers. The population of the city of Kobe in 1920 was 608,628. Of this number 5,244 were foreigners, the chief nationalities represented being Chinese, 3,205; British, 596; American; 304; Russian, 246; and Indian, 202.
The Temple of Nofukuji, which possesses a large bronze Buddha, and which is situated in the old town of Hyogo, is worth a visit; and there is a monument to the Japanese hero Kiyomori, erected in 1286, in a grove of trees in the vicinity of the tem- ple, which claims some attention from its historic associations. On the Kobe side of the old river known as the Minato-gawa also stands a temple dedicated to Kusunoki Masashige, so famous in Japanese history for loyalty and valour, who died on the spot in 1336, during the unsuccessful wars for the restoration of the Mikado's power. The Kawasaki Shipbuilding Yard situated at Hyogo is one of the largest in Japan. The Mitsubishi Co. also have a dockyard at the Western extremity of the ports. The Government in 1906 sanctioned a scheme for the improvement of the harbour involving an expenditure of 32,000,000 yen. Large reclamations were undertaken at Onohama, and commodious wharves and other facilities for the working of cargo are provided.
Kobe's excellent railway communications, both north and south, have naturally tended to centralise trade at this port.