These are the remains of a gun battery built by the Choshu Domain to prepare for the battles that they fought to expel foreign countries during the final days of samurai rule. In August 2010, these remains were designated as a historic site under the name Remains of the Choshu Domain Shimonoseki Maeda Gun Battery by the national government. This gun battery played a central role among a series of military facilities facing the Kanmon Strait, but it was destroyed with bombardment by a combined foreign fleet of Britain, France, the Netherlands, and the U.S. The destroyed gun battery was requisitioned, and is now among the collection of the Musée de l'Armée at Les Invalides in Paris. Part of the gun battery is now exhibited in the Shimonoseki City History Museum.