Tourist information
JR Higashi-Hagi Station
Left-luggage services are available. If you're staying overnight, they can arrange delivery to your hotel while you explore the city.
JR Hagi Station
Understand
The first castle in Hagi was built by the Yoshimi clan. But it was not until 1608 when the Mori clan, exiled here after a humiliating defeat by the Tokugawa shogunate, built their massive, imposing castle at the foot of Mt. Shizuki. The Mori clan transferred the capital of the Choshu Domain Choshu-han from Hiroshima to Hagi at the same time, where it remained the political center of the region for over 250 years.
In the middle of the 19th century, the Choshu allied with the Satsuma Domain to deliver some long-awaited payback, toppling the Tokugawa shogunate and thereby spurring the Meiji Restoration — and, with it, the modernizing of feudal Japan. Many Meiji statesmen were born and raised in Hagi, such as Hirobumi Ito, the first Japanese Prime Minister.