Clear the Hiroshima Local Quiz and earn the Hiroshima Local title. Want to know Hiroshima even better, or already confident? The tougher courses are next.
A shrine whose stage is the tide itself: Itsukushima is only the opening question. The Hiroshima quiz takes in the World Heritage sites of Miyajima and the Atomic Bomb Dome, okonomiyaki built in layers rather than mixed, the citizen-supported Hiroshima Toyo Carp, oysters and lemons from the Seto Inland Sea, and the port towns of Kure and Onomichi with their shipyards, slopes and cinema. Hiroshima dialect, "jaken" chief among its markers, belongs to the range as well, together with the story of the Peace Memorial Park. Practice questions wait just before the real test. Solve a handful, and the city may already look a little different to you.
Q1.Which World Heritage shrine in Hiroshima Prefecture has a vermilion-lacquered hall and great torii gate standing over the sea?
Izumo Taisha
Itsukushima Shrine
Sumiyoshi Taisha
Kasuga Taisha
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Correct answerItsukushima Shrine
Itsukushima Shrine is said to date from 593, and Taira no Kiyomori gave its halls over the sea their present scale in the late Heian period. The vermilion buildings and great torii change expression with the tides, and in 1996 the shrine was inscribed as World Heritage together with the primeval forest of Mount Misen behind it.
Q2.What is Hiroshima's signature teppan dish, made by layering noodles as it is grilled?
Takoyaki
Monjayaki
Okonomiyaki
Chijimi
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Correct answerOkonomiyaki
Hiroshima okonomiyaki is built, not mixed: a thin crepe of batter is layered with cabbage, pork, and noodles on the griddle. Its roots lie in issen yoshoku, a prewar penny snack, which grew heartier in the food shortages after the war until it became a full meal beloved across the city.
Q3.Which professional baseball citizens' team is based in Hiroshima City?
Hanshin Tigers
Orix Buffaloes
Yokohama DeNA BayStars
Hiroshima Toyo Carp
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Correct answerHiroshima Toyo Carp
The Hiroshima Toyo Carp was born in 1950 as the city rebuilt from the atomic bombing. A citizens' team with no parent company, it was once saved by donations that fans dropped into sake barrels; 'Toyo' entered the name in 1968 through the founding family of Toyo Kogyo, today's Mazda.
Q4.Which city in Hiroshima Prefecture prospered as a former Imperial Navy port and built the battleship Yamato?
Kure City
Mihara City
Takehara City
Ōtake City
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Correct answerKure City
Kure grew as a naval-port city after the Imperial Navy placed a district headquarters there in 1889, developing alongside its great naval arsenal. The battleship Yamato was built in secret at the Kure Naval Arsenal, and after the war the city's shipyards turned that expertise to giant tankers.
Q5.Which Sengoku warlord built Hiroshima Castle and founded the castle town of "Hiroshima"?
Mōri Motonari
Fukushima Masanori
Mōri Terumoto
Asano Nagaakira
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Correct answerMōri Terumoto
In 1589, Mori Terumoto left Yoshida-Koriyama, the mountain stronghold of his grandfather Motonari, and began building a new castle on the Ota River delta. Modeled on Osaka Castle and the Jurakudai, it gave its castle town the new name 'Hiroshima,' the seed of today's city.
