Mt. Kinka zan and squirrels

Hi, there.

Yesterday 23rd September was "Respect-for-the-Aged Day (敬老の日, keirou-no-hi )" in Japan. Also, it was a national holiday. So I went to Mt. Kinkazan (金華山, きんかざん) in Gifu city, Gifu prefecture with my family together.

This mountain was originally called "Inabayama（稲葉山, いなばやま）". And the top of this mountain had an impregnable castle named "Inabayama Jo (稲葉山城, いなばやまじょう)" at Sengoku period (A.D 1467~ 1603).

It is said that this castle was built in 1201, at Sengoku period of 16th century the local samurai lord Dozan Saito (斎藤道山, さいとうどうざん) started to renovate the castle extensively.

But his daughter's husband Nobunaga Oda (織田信長, おだのぶなが) , a samurai lord of Aichi area seized Inabayama Castle from Tatsuoki Saito (斎藤竜興, さいとうたつおき)  in 1567. Tatsuoki was a brother-in-law of Nobunaga.

At that time, Nobunaga was expanding his territory, and Inabayama castle became the initial base for his territorial expansion project. After occupying Inabayama castle, Nobunaga changed the local name to "Gifu (岐阜, ぎふ)". Originally the local biggest city was called "Inokuchi (井ノ口, いのくち)", however Nobunaga changed the name with meaning for the starting point of his project. 

The place name Gifu is derived from "Qishan (岐山、きざん)", the place of origin of the Zhou dynasty in ancient China, and "Qufu (曲阜, きょくふ) ", the birthplace of Confucius, the founder of Confucianism.

After Nobunaga died in 1582 due to the rebellion of his vassal Mitsuhide Akechi (明智光秀, あけちみつひで), this castle lost its role as the center of the samurai lord's governmet. At last, Gifu Castle was destroyed in 1601. at the succesive Edo period (1603~1868) Tokugawa shogunate forbad people to enter and climb this mountain 

This castle was restored as a history museum in 1910, nowadays the mountain is crowded with mountaineers and tourists.

Due to the pandemic of COVID-19, we currently can't enter the museum. It is very pity. But we can enter the squirrel garden on the top of the mountain. So we enjoyed feeding squirrels there.

The specie of squirrels there is "Taiwan squirrel", not Japanese native specie. It is said that that kind of squirrel were brought to Kinka zan in the 1930s. They are not wild squirrels but are tamed in the garden. The garden is the first squirrel garden in Japan, however alien animals are currently a social problem in Japan, and there are some local areas where Taiwan squirrel is also regarded as a harmful animal that damages crops and adversely affects the living environment of humans.