Honda Forest (本多の森 Honda-no-Mori). Near Kenrokuen is this pleasant green park-like area which houses the very interesting Prefectural Museum (housed in three long narrow prewar army storehouses of brick), the Art Gallery, and a few other smaller museums, as well as the Prefectural Noh Hall and the National Defence Shrine (護国神社 Gokoku Jinja), a smaller regional version of the main Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo. Just outside the shrine, which is built in the pure Japanese traditional style, is a tall pillar commemorating the dead of the "Great East Asia War" (Dai Tou-A Sensou: 大東亜戦争) that was the subject of considerable controversy when erected for its listing of groups that did not wish to be listed on a right-wing commemoration. It takes its name from the powerful Honda family, whose mansion once occupied this area in the Edo period.
