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Nishinomiya is a city in Hyogo Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan, between Osaka and Kobe, famous as the home of Koshien Stadium, where the Hanshin Tigers play and the national high school baseball tournaments are held. It stretches from the Rokko foothills down to Osaka Bay and has a population of about 480,000.
The city has long been a centre of sake brewing. Its Nishinomiya and Imazu districts belong to the Nada brewing area, whose sake owes much to Miyamizu, a hard spring water discovered here in the 19th century. The town grew up at the gates of Nishinomiya Shrine, head shrine of the god Ebisu.
North of the railway lines lie quiet residential hills. Cherry trees line the Shukugawa river, the rounded Mount Kabuto rises above the temple of Kanno-ji, and the Kitayama Botanical Garden offers peaceful walks. On the coast, a wooden lighthouse of 1858 still guides boats into Imazu harbour.
Koshien Stadium in Nishinomiya opened in 1924 to host the national high school baseball tournaments and is the home ground of the Hanshin Tigers. Its ivy-covered walls and black soil infield are famous across Japan, and the summer tournament grips the whole country.
The Koshien History Museum opened in 2010 inside the outfield stands of Koshien Stadium in Nishinomiya. It tells the story of the stadium, the Hanshin Tigers and a century of high school baseball with trophies, uniforms and memorabilia, and some displays are in the next-door Koshien Plus.
The Nishinomiya Shell Museum opened in 1999 on the artificial island of Nishinomiya-hama in Nishinomiya, in a building by Tadao Ando shaped like a sail. It shows about 2,000 species of shell, from a giant clam weighing over 200 kilograms to living nautilus, and visitors can handle real shells.
The Imazu Lighthouse is a small wooden lighthouse at the old harbour of Imazu in Nishinomiya, first set up in 1810 by a local sake brewer and rebuilt in 1858. It guided ships carrying barrels of sake to Edo, and it is the oldest lighthouse in Japan that is still in use.
Nishinomiya Shrine is the head shrine of about 3,500 shrines to Ebisu, the god of fishermen and good fortune, and is lovingly called Ebessan in Nishinomiya. Every January crowds gather for the Toka Ebisu festival, when young men race through its gates to be named the lucky man of the year.
Hirota Shrine is an ancient Shinto shrine in the northern hills of Nishinomiya, said in the Nihon Shoki chronicle to have been founded by Empress Jingu. It enshrines the fierce spirit of the sun goddess Amaterasu, and the Hanshin Tigers come here every year to pray for victory.
The Hakushika Sake Museum in Nishinomiya was founded in 1982 by the Tatsuuma family, brewers of Hakushika sake. One hall displays brewing tools in an old brewery building from 1869, while the other shows art and documents about sake and a collection on the cherry trees of Japan.
Mondo Yakujin is the popular name of Toko-ji, a Shingon Buddhist temple in Nishinomiya that is one of the three great temples in Japan for warding off bad luck. People in an unlucky year of life come to pray, and its festival on 18 and 19 January draws tens of thousands.
Mount Kabuto is a rounded hill in north-western Nishinomiya, the worn-down remains of a volcano that erupted about 12 million years ago. Its name is usually linked to its helmet-like shape, and the Hyogo Prefectural Kabutoyama Forest Park spreads over the land at its foot, with paths and a fountain.
Kanno-ji is a Shingon Buddhist temple on the slopes of Mount Kabuto in Nishinomiya, popularly called Kabutoyama Daishi. Tradition says it was founded in the 9th century by a consort of Emperor Junna, and its terraces give wide views over the city and Osaka Bay below.
The Shukugawa is a short river flowing from the Rokko mountains through Nishinomiya to Osaka Bay, lined by a riverside park about 4 kilometres long. Around 1,660 cherry trees and old pines grow along its banks, making it one of the best-loved places for cherry blossom viewing in the Hanshin area.
The Kitayama Botanical Garden is a 9-hectare garden in the northern hills of Nishinomiya, opened in 1982. A greenhouse holds about 260 kinds of plant, and a Japanese garden with a sukiya-style villa sits beside pavilions copied from gardens of Shaoxing, the Chinese sister city of Nishinomiya.
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