Kitakyushu · JP

Moji Barrier Site Monument (Mojigaseki)

On a quiet street in Old Moji (Kyū-Moji), beside the great vermilion torii of Mekari Shrine, a slender stone stele carved with the words 門司関址 marks one of the most consequential places in ancient Japan. It commemorates the Moji Barrier (Mojigaseki), founded in the second year of Taika, 646, the checkpoint that scrutinised every traveller, horse and ship crossing the Kanmon Strait between Kyushu and the capital, and which served as the gateway to the government seat at Dazaifu. Locals called it the 'first post station of Kyushu.' The monument is small, free, and easy to miss—but it rewards travellers who like their history layered. Its face carries both a prose account of the barrier and classical waka poems that court nobles composed here on the road between Kyoto and Dazaifu. Standing in the little park, with the Kanmon Strait and the lights of Honshu close by, you are at the exact spot where the sea road to the capital began.