Directory_and_Chronicle_1934 — Page 344

KOBE

Kobe was until 1892 the foreign port of the adjoining town of Hyogo and was opened to foreign trade in 1868, but in 1889 the two towns were incor- porated under the title of Kobe City, when the City Municipal Law was put into force. The reclamation of the bed of the Minatogawa River in 1910 and the extension of the tramway service have resulted in the disappearance of the old boundary line between Kobe and Hyogo. Hyogo, therefore, is now merely one of the administrative sections of Kobe. The port is finely situated on the Idzumi-nada, at the gate of the farfamed Inland Sea. Water supply, electric lighting and urban tramways are all municipal undertakings, while the reconstruction of the harbour is a state undertaking to which the city has been obliged to contribute about Y.3,000,000. 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 has been carried out. The harbour now has four large piers, with quays on each side, plus several smaller but quite important privately owned quays or wharves, connected by rail with the main line Tokyo-Shimonoseki. Two more large piers one with a slip in the centre, are now nearing completion. The Kawasaki Shipbuilding Yard

Yard situated

situated at Hyogo is one of the largest in Japan. The Mitsubishi Co., also, have a dockyard at the Western extremity of the port. The town faces the land-locked water covered with white sails, while behind, at a distance of about a mile, rises a range of pic- turesque 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 and Japanese residences, the place having become a favourite summer resort. Two motor roads have been built to Rokkosan, and an aerial ropeway and a cablecar line are also in opera- tion. A modern hotel offers good accommodation. The summit of this hill has been well-prepared for the purpose of a resort, several miles of excellent paths making walking on the hills easy and enjoyable. Among the attrac- tions of Rokkosan are excellent golf links. Kobe stretches for some five miles along the strip of land between the hills and the water, and is rapidly "extending westward along the coast and eastward in the direction of Osaka, which is connected with Kobe by rail and three electric tramways, as well as by a well-constructed new, broad motor-road. Within the last few years the Japanese have bought many of the lots in the former Foreign Settlement and erected large offices of five or six stories, which have greatly improved the city. Kobe has three main stations-(Sannomiya, Kobe, Hyogo), of which Sannomiya is the most important for foreigners but all are in the main through line Tokyo-Shimonoseki. There are several Clubs the Kobe Club (including members of all nationalities), the Masonic Club, the India Club, the Club Concordia (German), and the Kobe Regatta and Athletic Club (inter- national). At Mirume the K.R.A.C. have a fine boathouse, tennis courts and a large new swimming-pool. There is an English Church, All Saints, a Union Church (Protestant) and a French Roman Catholic church, also a number of Japanese churches of various denominations. Kobe possesses two good foreign hotels, the Tor, on the hill, and the Oriental, on the Bund.

The population of the city Kobe is given as 828,589 (end of 1931).

The Temple of Nofukuji, which possesses a large Bronze Budda, is situ- ated in the old town of Hyogo, and 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 temple, which claims some attention from its historic asso- ciations. The bed of the old river Minatogawa was reclaimed in 1910. The upper part of the reclaimed area is now known as Minatogawa Park, where