Research conducted by the Fukuoka City Museum has revealed that the place name ‘Fukuoka’ first appeared in a renga (linked verse poem) written by Kanbei Kuroda, the founding father of the Fukuoka Domain, in 1602. The renga in question was donated by the Kuroda family to Fukuoka City in 1978 and is said to express wishes for the prosperity of Fukuoka and the Kuroda Clan. The Kurodas moved to what is now Fukuoka City after the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 and built Fukuoka Castle. Historians have claimed that the Kurodas changed the name of the domain they were granted to Fukuoka after their ancestral homeland of Fukuoka in Bizen Province (now Osafunecho-Fukuoka, Setouchi City, Okayama), but they did not know when the name was changed. This renga has revealed that the name change occurred when the construction of Fukuoka Castle began. The renga will be on display at the Fukuoka City Museum until September 1. Source: http://www.fiba.jp/archives/2013/date/july/4695/ , Official Fukuoka City Museum HP: http://museum.city.fukuoka.jp/je/jje_fr3.html
