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The View from Mt. Haguro
Photographed by an American Military Doctor, 1951
Thanks to Stefan Ramos for the translation
Feb. 25th, 2018
With Toriyajinja Shrine on the peak of urban Ishinomaki’s Mt. Haguro to the viewer’s back, this picture looks out towards Mt. Hiyori and the mouth of the Kyukitakamigawa River.
This photo was taken around the large lantern in front of the shrine grounds and near the front stairs. If you look out southwards from the 49-meters-tall Mt. Haguro, Mt. Hiyori (61 meters tall) acts as a wall and blocks off part of the view.
Just in front are over-crowded, fully grown cherry blossom trees. They were probably planted before the war.
We can also see buildings like the old Kyuishinomakishiyakusho city hall (a two story wooden building) which burned down in a fire in 1956 (Showa 31) and the old Monouoshika office and education center which was on the other side of the road and also a wooden building.
More buildings were being constructed on the Monomizaka hill on the east side of the old town hall and on the hill to the west in front of Kaimonji Temple; the conversion to residential land continued on. The creation of residential lots in Umegaoka and the beginning of the real estate sales happened afterwards. Shops and shipbuilding factories stood in a row down the Nakamachi, Honmachi, and Kadonowakicho riverside neighborhoods.
We have a glimpse through the shade of the trees of the activity in Nakase (a shipyard).
In 1951 (Showa 26) with the designation of Ishinomaki as a Category 3 Fishing Port, harbor maintenance progressed onwards. In the Minato area on the opposite shore we can see the long roof of the fish market and the completed pier.
The dredger permanently stationed in the port at this time continued dredging as it had every year in order to maintain the water depths of the boat routes and estuary. Before long the change to larger size fishing vessels continued, and through seeing the spreading and resumption of fishing industries moving from offshore to deep sea and northern-sea fisheries, we see the development of the fishing industries. The estuary port was reaching its limit, and in 1974 (Showa 49) the Ishinomaki port moved to Nagahama.
The pine grove that continued along the oceanic coast from Watanohacho to Nagahama was lost with the opening of the new Ishinomaki port and the establishment of the seafood product processing center, but in the picture we see the belt-shaped white sand and green pine grove. In the unchanging scenery of the Oshika Peninsula ridgeline and Bentenjima Island off the coast of Kotakehama, as well as Tashirojima Island and Ajishima Island, we feel the breaths of an Ishinomaki growing as a commercial fishing town. (Local Historian, Seiji Henmi)
<Please let us know if you have any information>
You can browse the published photos on the photographer’s eldest son, Alan Butler’s, website “Miyagi 1951”. https://www.miyagi1951.com/
Please feel free to contribute any information regarding these photos to Mr. Henmi at 090(4317)7706.
2018.02.25
米軍医が撮った1951、石巻地方＜７＞ 羽黒山から
石巻市の市街地にある羽黒山頂の鳥屋神社を背にして、日和山や旧北上川河口方面を見た写真です。
撮影場所は、境内前の大灯籠近くの表参道階段付近。標高４９メートルの羽黒山から南方向を望むと、日和山（６１メートル）が壁となって一部の展望が遮られます。
手前は過密に成長した桜。植樹は戦前のことでしょうか。
その先に、１９５６（昭和３１）年に火災で焼失した旧石巻市役所（木造２階）と、道路を挟んで同じく木造２階の旧桃生牡鹿事務所・同教育会館などが見えます。
旧市役所東側の物見坂、西側の海門寺前坂にも建物が建って、宅地化が進んでいます。梅が丘の宅地造成と分譲開始はこの後です。川岸沿いの中町、本町、門脇町には、商店と造船関連工場などが立ち並んでいました。
緑陰の間から中瀬（造船所）の活況がうかがえます。
５１（昭和２６）年は、第３種漁港の指定で港湾整備が進みました。対岸の湊地区には、完成した桟橋と魚市場の長い屋根が見えます。
港内に常駐する浚渫（しゅんせつ）船がこの頃、河口と航路の水深維持のため毎年のように浚渫を続けていました。やがて漁船の大型化が進み、漁船漁業が沖合から遠洋・北洋漁業の再開へと拡大を見せる中で、水産業界は発展。河口港は限界を迎え、石巻港は７４（昭和４９）年に長浜に移転します。
渡波町から長浜に続く海岸にあった松原は、石巻新漁港の開港と水産加工団地の開設で失われますが、写真には白砂青松の松原が帯状に見えます。牡鹿半島の稜線と小竹浜沖の弁天島、田代島と網地島の変わらない景色の中に、水産商港都市として成長していく石巻市の息吹が感じられます。（郷土史家・辺見清二）
※米軍医が撮った1951、石巻地方＜６＞ 石巻小の遊動円木
http://ishinomaki.kahoku.co.jp/news/2018/02/20180218t13004.htm
＜情報をお寄せください＞
掲載された写真は、撮影者の長男アラン・バトラー氏のウェブサイト「Ｍｉｙａｇｉ １９５１」で閲覧できます。https://www.miyagi1951.com/
写真に関する情報は辺見氏 ０９０（４３１７）７７０６ にお寄せください。