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, also known as Tsuruga Castle (鶴ヶ城 ''Tsuru-ga-jō'') is a concrete replica of a traditional
Japanese castle are fortresses constructed primarily of wood and stone. They evolved from the wooden stockades of earlier centuries, and came into their best-known form in the 16th century. Castles in Japan were built to guard important or strategic sites, such ...
in northern
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
, at the center of the city of
Aizuwakamatsu is a city in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 118,159 in 50,365 households, and a population density of 310 persons per km2. The total area of the city was . Geography Aizuwakamatsu is located in the west ...
, in
Fukushima Prefecture Fukushima Prefecture (; ja, 福島県, Fukushima-ken, ) is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Fukushima Prefecture has a population of 1,810,286 () and has a geographic area of . Fukushima Prefecture borders Miya ...
.


Background

Aizu Wakamatsu Castle is located in the center of the Aizu basin and at crossroads to
Kōriyama is a city in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. , the city has an estimated population of 322,996 people in 141760 households, and a population density of 430 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Kōriyama is designated as a core city and ...
to the north and
Yonezawa Yonezawa City Hall is a city in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 81,707 in 33,278 households, and a population density of 150 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Yonezawa is most famous for ...
to the east and Murakami on the
Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it h ...
coast. During the Nanboku-cho period, the area was ruled by the
Ashina clan Ashina may refer to: *Ashina tribe, a ruling dynasty of the Turkic Khaganate *Ashina clan (Japan), one of the Japanese clans *Ashina District, Hiroshima, a former Japanese district *Empress Ashina (551–582), empress of the Chinese/Xianbei dynasty ...
. Ashina Naomori built within the Aizu basin in 1384. This castle was the predecessor of what later became Aizuwakamatsu Castle. It was ruled by
Ashina Moriuji was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the Azuchi–Momoyama period The was the final phase of the in Japanese history from 1568 to 1600. After the outbreak of the Ōnin War in 1467, the power of the Ashikaga Shogunate effectively collapsed, marking ...
until 1561, when he turned his domain over to his son. The Ashina clan also built
Mukaihaguroyama Castle , also known as , was an Edo period Japanese castle located in the town of Aizumisato, southern Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. The site has been protected by the central government as a National Historic Site since 2001. It is ranked as one of the ...
, a huge mountain castle 10 kilometers south of Aizu Wakamatsu. However, by the
Sengoku period The was a period in History of Japan, Japanese history of near-constant civil war and social upheaval from 1467 to 1615. The Sengoku period was initiated by the Ōnin War in 1467 which collapsed the Feudalism, feudal system of Japan under the ...
, the power of the Ashina clan had weakened.
Date Masamune was a regional ruler of Japan's Azuchi–Momoyama period through early Edo period. Heir to a long line of powerful ''daimyō'' in the Tōhoku region, he went on to found the modern-day city of Sendai. An outstanding tactician, he was made all ...
, the greatest warlord of the Tōhoku area, who had struggled against the Ashina clan for years, and finally captured the castle in 1589 at the
Siege of Kurokawa Castle The siege of Kurokawa Castle was a battle during the Azuchi–Momoyama period (16th century) of Japan. Following the assassination of Ashina Moritaka. Satake Yoshinobu, son of Satake Yoshishige, was chosen to inherit the leadership of the clan. ...
. However, Masamune was in turn forced to pledge fealty to
Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations that Changed the Cour ...
in 1590, and were obliged to relocate north to
Sendai is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Miyagi Prefecture, the largest city in the Tōhoku region. , the city had a population of 1,091,407 in 525,828 households, and is one of Japan's 20 Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, desig ...
. Aizu then came to be ruled by one of Hideyoshi's generals,
Gamō Ujisato or Gamō Yasuhide was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the Sengoku and Azuchi–Momoyama periods. He was heir and son of Gamō Katahide, lord of Hino Castle in Ōmi Province, he later held Matsusaka (Ise Province) and finally Aizuwakamatsu Castle in M ...
. Ujisato was expected to keep a close watch on Date Masamune, and thus rebuilt Kurokawa Castle into a modern castle in 1592, renaming it ''Tsuruga Castle'', although the populace also referred to it as ''Aizu Castle'' or ''Wakamatsu Castle''. He also built an unprecedentedly huge seven-story ''
tenshu is an architectural typology found in Japanese castle complexes. They are easily identifiable as the highest tower within the castle. Common translations of ''tenshu'' include keep, main keep, or ''donjon''. ''Tenshu'' are characterized as ty ...
'' in 1593.


History

Ujisato died of illness at the age of 39, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi reassigned his vast domain to
Uesugi Kagekatsu was a Japanese samurai ''daimyō'' during the Sengoku and Edo periods. He was the adopted son of Uesugi Kenshin and Uesugi Kagetora’s brother in law. Early life and rise Kagekatsu was the son of Nagao Masakage, the head of the Ueda Nagao c ...
, whom he relocated from
Echigo Province was an old province in north-central Japan, on the shores of the Sea of Japan. It bordered on Uzen, Iwashiro, Kōzuke, Shinano, and Etchū Provinces. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Echigo''" in . It corresponds today to Niigata ...
. Although Aizuwakamatsu Castle was already large, Uesugi Kagekatsu started to build another castle on the outskirts of Aizuwakamatsu town, but it was never completed. After having sided with the
Toyotomi clan The was a Japanese clan that ruled over the Japanese before the Edo period. Unity and conflict The most influential figure within the Toyotomi was Toyotomi Hideyoshi, one of the three "unifiers of Japan". Oda Nobunaga was another primary un ...
during the
Sekigahara campaign The Sekigahara Campaign was a series of battles in Japan fought between the Eastern Army aligned with Tokugawa Ieyasu and the Western Army loyal to Ishida Mitsunari, culminating in the decisive Battle of Sekigahara. The conflict was sparked ...
, the Uesugi Clan was demoted in status and relocated to a much reduced
Yonezawa Domain was a feudal domain in Edo period Japan, located in Dewa Province (modern-day Yamagata Prefecture), Japan. It was centered at Yonezawa castle in what is now the city of Yamagata, and its territory extended over the Okitama District of Dewa Pro ...
. The domain was then assigned to
Katō Yoshiaki was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the late Sengoku period to early Edo period who served as lord of the Aizu Domain. A retainer of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, he fought in the battle of Shizugatake in 1583, and soon became known as one of the ''shichi-hon- ...
, who was noted for his bravery at the
Battle of Shizugatake The was a battle of the Sengoku period of Japan fought between Toyotomi Hideyoshi (then Hashiba Hideyoshi) and Shibata Katsuie in Shizugatake, Ōmi Province in May 1583. Katsuie supported Oda Nobutaka's claim as successor of Oda Nobunaga in a ...
. Under the Katō, the castle was reformed and a new layout was imposed on the surrounding ''
jōkamachi The term refers to a type of urban structures in Japan in which the city surrounds a feudal lord's castle. These cities did not necessarily form around castles after the Edo period; some are known as Jin'yamachi, cities that have evolved around J ...
''. However, during a great earthquake in 1611, the castle was severely damaged, and the ''tenshu'' was rebuilt into the current configuration. The Katō were dispossessed in 1643 and were replaced by Hoshina Masayuki, the illegitimate son of
Shōgun , officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamakur ...
Tokugawa Hidetada was the second ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa dynasty, who ruled from 1605 until his abdication in 1623. He was the third son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate. Early life (1579–1593) Tokugawa Hidetada was bo ...
and thus half-brother of
Tokugawa Iemitsu Tokugawa Iemitsu (徳川 家光, August 12, 1604 – June 8, 1651) was the third ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa dynasty. He was the eldest son of Tokugawa Hidetada with Oeyo, and the grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Lady Kasuga was his wet nurse, who a ...
. He later served a regent to the underage Shōgun
Tokugawa Ietsuna was the fourth ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa dynasty of Japan who was in office from 1651 to 1680. He is considered the eldest son of Tokugawa Iemitsu, which makes him the grandson of Tokugawa Hidetada and the great-grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu. E ...
. Within Aizu, he developed commerce and agriculture, and established
han school The was an educational institution in the Edo period of Japan, originally established to educate children of ''daimyō'' (feudal lords) and their retainers in the domains outside of the capital. These institutions were also known as ''hangaku' ...
, the ''Nisshinkan''. His successors were permitted to take the "Matsudaira" surname. Throughout the
Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...
, Aizu Domain was an important Tokugawa stronghold in the
Tōhoku region The , Northeast region, or consists of the northeastern portion of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. This traditional region consists of six prefectures (''ken''): Akita, Aomori, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi, and Yamagata. Tōhoku retains a ...
and was one of the strongest domains in terms of its military power. During the
Bakumatsu period was the final years of the Edo period when the Tokugawa shogunate ended. Between 1853 and 1867, Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as and changed from a feudal Tokugawa shogunate to the modern empire of the Meiji govern ...
,
Matsudaira Katamori Matsudaira Katamori after the Meiji restoration was a samurai who lived in Bakumatsu period and the early to mid Meiji period Japan. He was the 9th ''daimyō'' of the Aizu Domain and the Kyoto Shugoshoku (Military Commissioner of Kyoto). He in ...
was one of the Shōgunate's most able and loyalist supporter. After the defeat of the Shōgunate at the
Battle of Toba-Fushimi A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...
and the abdication of power by Shōgun
Tokugawa Yoshinobu Prince was the 15th and last ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan. He was part of a movement which aimed to reform the aging shogunate, but was ultimately unsuccessful. He resigned of his position as shogun in late 1867, while aiming ...
, Matsudaira Katamori become one of the leaders in the pro-Tokugawa alliance against the new
Meiji government The was the government that was formed by politicians of the Satsuma Domain and Chōshū Domain in the 1860s. The Meiji government was the early government of the Empire of Japan. Politicians of the Meiji government were known as the Meiji o ...
. During the
Battle of Aizu The Battle of Aizu (Japanese: 会津戦争, "War of Aizu") was fought in northern Japan from October to November in autumn 1868, and was part of the Boshin War. History Aizu was known for its martial skill, and maintained at any given time a s ...
in the
Boshin War The , sometimes known as the Japanese Revolution or Japanese Civil War, was a civil war in Japan fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and a clique seeking to seize political power in the name of the Imperi ...
, Aizuwakamatsu Castle was besieged by the forces of the
Satchō Alliance The , or was a powerful military alliance between the feudal domains of Satsuma and Chōshū formed in 1866 to combine their efforts to restore Imperial rule and overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan. History The name ''Satchō'' () is an ...
in October 1868. Although the castle was very strong by traditional standards, the new government army was equipped with western artillery, which was able to shell the castle from surrounding hills for over a month. Faced with the inevitable eventual defeat, Matsudaira Katamori surrendered the castle and his remaining forces in November. The surviving castle buildings, pockmarked by artillery during the siege and structurally unstable, were demolished by the new government in 1874. One ''yagura'' survived the destruction by being relocated to a Buddhist temple, Amida-ji, five-kilometers from the castle. The castle site was mostly sold off to private landowners, with only the central portion (23 hectares) kept by the government for use by an
Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...
garrison until 1908. This area forms the core of the modern National Historic Site. With the popularity of the
Byakkotai The was a group of around 305 young teenage samurai of the Aizu Domain, who fought in the Boshin War (1868–1869) on the side of the Tokugawa shogunate. History The Byakkotai was part of Aizu's four-unit military, formed in April 1868 in the ...
story in pre-war Japan, a movement arose to preserve the site of the castle, and it was made into a public park. The National Historic Site status was granted in 1934, although the area still suffered from indignities, such as a
velodrome A velodrome is an arena for track cycling. Modern velodromes feature steeply banked oval tracks, consisting of two 180-degree circular bends connected by two straights. The straights transition to the circular turn through a moderate Track tran ...
operating in the
inner bailey The inner bailey or inner ward of a castle is the strongly fortified enclosure at the heart of a medieval castle.Friar, Stephen (2003). ''The Sutton Companion to Castles'', Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 2003, p. 22. It is protected by the outer w ...
until 1957. In 1965, a reconstruction of the ''tenshu'' in concrete was completed as a symbol of the city. Currently there is a museum inside, and an observation gallery on top with panoramic views of the city. A gate was completed at the same time. In 1991, a ''yagura'' and a connecting corridor were also reconstructed. The tea room, named Rinkaku, has been restored and is designated as an Fukushima Prefecture Important Cultural Property. It is open to the public, and at times tea ceremonies are held there.


Layout

The primary layout of the castle consists of an
inner bailey The inner bailey or inner ward of a castle is the strongly fortified enclosure at the heart of a medieval castle.Friar, Stephen (2003). ''The Sutton Companion to Castles'', Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 2003, p. 22. It is protected by the outer w ...
and three secondary enclosures to the west, north and east. The southern face of the castle was protected by a river. The inner bailey is pentagonal, with length of approximately 200 meters, surrounded by deep moats and tall stone walls. The area is divided internally by walls and corridors, and the ''tenshu'' is in the northwest corner. The original ''tenshu'' under the Gamō clan was a massive seven-story structure with black walls and gold
roof tile A roof ( : roofs or rooves) is the top covering of a building, including all materials and constructions necessary to support it on the walls of the building or on uprights, providing protection against rain, snow, sunlight, extremes of temper ...
s, similar to Toyotomi Hideyoshi's
Osaka Castle is a Japanese castle in Chūō-ku, Osaka, Japan. The castle is one of Japan's most famous landmarks and it played a major role in the unification of Japan during the sixteenth century of the Azuchi-Momoyama period. Layout The main tower ...
. The ''tenshu'' rebuilt by the by Katō clan was smaller and was painted white. The secondary enclosures of the castle had clay ramparts, with stonework used in the gate areas. In the north and west of the central area were large bastions. The total size of the castle area was 600 by 400 meters, but the castle town itself was also guarded by an outer barrier and the river, enclosing a square kilometer.


See also

*
List of Historic Sites of Japan (Fukushima) This list is of the Historic Sites of Japan located within the Prefecture of Fukushima. National Historic Sites As of 17 December 2021, fifty-four Sites have been designated as being of national significance. ...
* Battle of Bonari Pass *
Byakkotai The was a group of around 305 young teenage samurai of the Aizu Domain, who fought in the Boshin War (1868–1869) on the side of the Tokugawa shogunate. History The Byakkotai was part of Aizu's four-unit military, formed in April 1868 in the ...
*
Komine Castle is a Japanese castle located in what is now the city of Shirakawa, southern Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. Throughout the middle to later Edo period, Komine Castle was home to the Abe clan, ''daimyō'' of Shirakawa Domain. It was also referred to ...
*
Shinsengumi The was a special police force organized by the (military government) during Japan's Bakumatsu period (late Tokugawa shogunate) in 1863. It was active until 1869. It was founded to protect the shogunate representatives in Kyoto at a time when ...
*
Ōuetsu Reppan Dōmei The was a Japanese military-political coalition established and disestablished over the course of several months in early to mid-1868 during the Boshin War. Its flag was either a white interwoven five-pointed star on a black field, or a black i ...
*
Fukushima Museum is a prefectural museum in Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima, Aizuwakamatsu, Japan, dedicated to the natural history, history, and culture of Fukushima Prefecture. The museum opened in Aizuwakamatsu Castle, Tsuruga Castle Park in 1986. Galaxy See a ...


References


Further reading

* * *


External links


Tsuruga-jō Official Website

Tsuruga-jō Official Website
{{Authority control Castles in Fukushima Prefecture Iwashiro Province Mutsu Province Museums in Fukushima Prefecture Historic Sites of Japan Aizuwakamatsu Aizu-Matsudaira clan Ashina clan Gamō clan Date clan