, also known as Shizuki Castle, was a

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 ...

located in Hagi,

Yamaguchi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Yamaguchi Prefecture has a population of 1,377,631 (1 February 2018) and has a geographic area of 6,112 km2 (2,359 sq mi). Yamaguchi Prefecture borders Shimane Prefecture t ...

. Hagi Castle was built in 1604 at the beginning of 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 characte ...

as the main castle of the

Mōri clan The Mōri clan (毛利氏 ''Mōri-shi'') was a Japanese samurai clan descended from Ōe no Hiromoto. Ōe no Hiromoto was descended from the Fujiwara clan. The family's most illustrious member, Mōri Motonari, greatly expanded the clan's pow ...

, and served as the seat of the Chōshū Domain for over 250 years until 1863. Hagi Castle was demolished in 1874 shortly after the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

. Hagi Castle's former site has been designated a

UNESCO World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...

since July 2015.

History

Hagi Castle was constructed in 1604 by

Mōri Terumoto Mōri Terumoto (毛利輝元, January 22, 1553 – June 2, 1625) was a Japanese ''daimyō''. The son of Mōri Takamoto, and grandson and successor of the great warlord Mōri Motonari, he fought against Oda Nobunaga but was eventually overco ...

, the head of the

, as his new seat after defeat at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600. The Mōri had ruled most of the

Chūgoku region The , also known as the region, is the westernmost region of Honshū, the largest island of Japan. It consists of the prefectures of Hiroshima, Okayama, Shimane, Tottori, and Yamaguchi. In 2010, it had a population of 7,563,428. History ''C ...

by the late

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 ...

, and Terumoto had recently constructed

Hiroshima Castle , sometimes called , is a castle in Hiroshima, Japan that was the residence of the '' daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the Hiroshima Domain. The castle was originally constructed in the 1590s, but was destroyed by the atomic bombing on August 6, 1945. ...

from which to rule it. However, Terumoto had joined the western alliance against

Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fello ...

and subsequently lost most of his holdings, including Hiroshima Castle, and was forced west into the provinces of Suō and Nagato. Following the establishment of the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

, Terumoto applied to build new castles in present-day Hagi, Yamaguchi, and Mitajiri, with only Hagi being accepted because of its strategic location 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, i ...

coast. Hagi Castle was unusual as it was constructed mainly at the base of Mount Shizuki, though a few defences are located on the mountain. As the seat of the Mōri, the castle served as the ''

de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...

'' capital of the Chōshū Domain. In 1863,

Mōri Takachika was the 13th daimyo of Chōshū Domain. His domain was a traditional enemy of the Tokugawa shogunate, and he became a key player in its downfall during the Bakumatsu period. He was also the first daimyo to return his lands to the Emperor during ...

moved the seat of the Mōri to Yamaguchi Castle without permission of the shogunate during the ''

Bakumatsu 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 governm ...

''. In 1874, much of Hagi Castle was demolished, leaving little but ruins, as part of a wave of castle demolitions following the

Today

Hagi Castle is a National Historic site. It was registered as a

on July 5, 2015 as part of the Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution: Iron and Steel, Shipbuilding and Coal Mining. It is registered as part of Hagi's Castle Town. Hagi Castle oldphoto.jpg, Main keep (''tenshu'') of Hagi Castle, before 1880 Hagi Castle The Keep Base.jpg, Ruins of the castle and the same view today

Sources

Literature

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External links

{{Authority control Castles in Yamaguchi Prefecture Historic Sites of Japan Demolished buildings and structures in Japan Buildings and structures demolished in 1874