Masuji Ibuse · Chugoku, Hiroshima

Retracing Masuji Ibuse's Black Rain to Hiroshima and Jinsekikogen: A Literary Travel Guide

Follow the real diary behind Ibuse's Black Rain — from Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park to the small Chugoku mountain town where the survivor whose journal inspired the novel was born.

Black Rain

Masuji Ibuse

Black Rain is centered around the story of a young woman who was caught in the radioactive "black rain" that fell after the bombing of Hiroshima. lbuse bases his tale on real-life diaries and interviews with victims of the holocaust; the result is a book that is free from sentimentality yet manages to reveal the magnitude of the human suffering caused by the atom bomb. The life of Yasuko, on whom the black rain fell, is changed forever by periodic bouts of radiation sickness and the suspicion that her future children, too, may be affected. lbuse tempers the horror of his subject with the gentle humor for which he is famous. His sensitivity to the complex web of emotions in a traditional community torn asunder by this historical event has made Black Rain one of the most acclaimed treatments of the Hiroshima story.

Black Rain (黒い雨, Kuroi Ame) is Masuji Ibuse's 1966 novel about a Hiroshima man compiling his diary of the atomic bombing and its aftermath in August 1945, hoping the record will help disprove a rumor that his niece was exposed to radiation and improve her marriage prospects. It's told almost entirely through diary entries, and that documentary structure isn't just a literary device: Ibuse built the novel directly on a real survivor's diary rather than inventing the account from scratch.

A novel built on someone else's diary

Ibuse wasn't in Hiroshima when the bomb was dropped, and Black Rain isn't autobiographical the way some other novels on this site are. Its diary sections are based directly on the real wartime diary of a hibakusha (atomic bomb survivor), Shigematsu Shizuma, alongside a second account by a military doctor, Hiroshi Iwatake. Ibuse learned of the diary through a shared fishing trip with Shizuma, and began serializing a fictionalized version in the magazine Shincho in January 1965 under the title The Niece's Marriage, retitling it Black Rain later that year.

Stop 1: Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park — the world the diary describes

The diary sections of the novel are set in Hiroshima in the days after August 6, 1945; the real Shigematsu Shizuma was himself exposed to the bombing near Yokogawa Station, about 2 km north of the hypocenter. Today, the closest a visitor can come to that history is Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and the Atomic Bomb Dome (原爆ドーム) — the skeletal ruin of the former Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, left standing near the hypocenter as a permanent memorial — alongside the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, which documents the bombing and its aftermath in detail.

• Getting there: From Hiroshima Station's south exit, take Hiroden streetcar Line 2 (bound for Miyajima-guchi) or Line 6 (bound for Eba), about 15 minutes, to the Genbaku Dome-mae stop; the Dome and Peace Memorial Park are both under a minute's walk from there.
• Good to know: The Peace Memorial Museum charges admission and keeps standard daytime hours; the Dome itself and the surrounding park are free and open at all hours.

Stop 2: Komohata, Jinsekikogen Town — where the diary's author was born

The real Shigematsu Shizuma was born in, and later lived in, Komohata (小畠), a small village in the mountains of what's now Jinsekikogen Town — a rural corner of Hiroshima Prefecture near the Okayama border, far from central Hiroshima's urban core. A stone literary monument in Tsutsujigaoka Park, near Shizuma's old family home, is inscribed with a line from the novel: "War is hateful. It doesn't matter who wins or loses — I just want it to be over quickly." Nearby, the local museum Shimari (志麻利) displays around 50 items related to the novel, including Ibuse's handwritten manuscript pages, photographs of Ibuse and Shizuma together, their correspondence, and copies of the original Shincho serialization.

• Getting there: This is a genuinely rural stop. From Fukuyama Station, Chugoku Bus's Higashi-mawari Abuki/Tojo line runs to Abuki (about 84 minutes), connecting to a local route to the Obata-kyoku-mae stop near Komohata (about 17 more minutes) — infrequent enough that a car is the more practical option for most visitors.
• Good to know: Bus schedules on this route are limited and change; confirm current times before relying on them rather than planning around older listings.

Practical travel notes

• Best time to visit: Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park is a reflective site rather than a seasonal one — any time of year works, and early morning tends to be quietest. Komohata, being mountainous, is easiest to reach outside winter snow.
• Base yourself in: Hiroshima City for the Peace Memorial Park stop; Komohata is a long day trip or overnight detour, not something to combine casually with the city.
• Language: the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum has extensive English signage and materials; Komohata's rural sites are Japanese-only.
• The book itself: the standard English translation, titled Black Rain, is by John Bester, published by Kodansha International.