was the seat of the Matsura clan, the '' daimyō'' of Hirado Domain, of Hizen Province,

Kyūshū is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surround ...

. It is located in present-day Hirado city Nagasaki Prefecture,

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 ...

. It was also known as .

Description

Hirado Castle was built on top of a small, rounded mountainous peninsula facing Hirado Bay, surrounded on three sides by water.

History

After Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s successful conquest of Kyūshū, local warlord Matsura Shigenobu was granted Hirado County and the Iki Island to be his domain. In 1599, Matsura Shigenobu erected a castle called Hinotake-jō on the site of the present-day Hirado Castle. However, he burned the castle down himself in 1613, as a gesture of loyalty towards Shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu, having served in the losing Toyotomi side during the

Battle of Sekigahara The Battle of Sekigahara (Shinjitai: ; Kyūjitai: , Hepburn romanization: ''Sekigahara no Tatakai'') was a decisive battle on October 21, 1600 (Keichō 5, 15th day of the 9th month) in what is now Gifu prefecture, Japan, at the end of ...

. In return, he was allowed to retain his position as ''daimyō'' of Hirado Domain under the Tokugawa bakufu. The present Hirado Castle was constructed in 1704 by order of the 4th ''daimyō'' of Hirado domain, Matsura Takashi with the assistance of the Tokugawa shogunate. It was intended to be the keystone in coastal defense in the

East China Sea The East China Sea is an arm of the Western Pacific Ocean, located directly offshore from East China. It covers an area of roughly . The sea’s northern extension between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula is the Yellow Sea, separated b ...

region, as the government had by then implemented a policy of national seclusion against Western traders and missionaries. The design was partly influenced by the theories of the military strategist

Yamaga Sokō was a Japanese philosopher and military strategist under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period in Japan. As a scholar he applied the Confucian idea of the "superior man" to the samurai class of Japan. This became an important part of the samurai ...

. The new construction was completed in 1718, and the castle remained home to the Matsura ''daimyō'' until the

Meiji bils Meiji, the romanization of the Japanese characters 明治 , may refer to: Japanese history * Emperor Meiji, Emperor of Japan between 1867 and 1912 ** Meiji era, the name given to that period in Japanese history *** Meiji Restoration, the revol ...

of 1868. In 1871, with the

abolition of the han system The in the Empire of Japan and its replacement by a system of prefectures in 1871 was the culmination of the Meiji Restoration begun in 1868, the starting year of the Meiji period. Under the reform, all daimyos (, ''daimyō'', feudal lords) ...

, all structures of Hirado Castle were dismantled, with the exception of the northern gate, a '' yagura'' and the moat, and the grounds turned into Kameoka Park, with a

Shinto shrine A is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more ''kami'', the deities of the Shinto religion. Overview Structurally, a Shinto shrine typically comprises several buildings. The '' honden''Also called (本殿, meani ...

dedicated to the spirits of the successive generations of the Matsura ''hankang''. The former residence of the final ''daimyō'',

Matsura Akira Count was the 12th and final '' daimyō'' of Hirado Domain in Hizen Province, Kyūshū, Japan. He was also the 37th hereditary head of the Matsura clan, and a noted tea master. His honorary title was. '' Hizen-no-Kami''. Biography Akira w ...

was turned into a local history museum. In 1962, four ''yagura'', the ramparts, and the

keep A keep (from the Middle English ''kype'') is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in c ...

were reconstructed. The modern keep is a five-story

steel-reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having hig ...

structure and contains a museum with artifacts of the Matsura clan. One of these artifacts is a 93-cm long Japanese sword ('' tachi'') dating from the Asuka period, and is locally purported to have been carried by a general during the time of the legendary Empress Jingū's invasion of Korea. An heirloom of the Matsura clan, it is now owned by Kameoka Shrine and is a designated as a National Important Cultural Property (ICP). In 2006, Hirado Castle was listed as one of the

100 Fine Castles of Japan The castles in were chosen based on their significance in culture, history, and in their regions by the in 2006. In 2017, Japanese Castle Association created an additional finest 100 castles list as Continued Top 100 Japanese Castles. Hokkaidō ...

by the Japan Castle Foundation.

Gallery

Image:HiradoCastle2.jpg, Hirado Castle stands on an island off

. Image:HiradoCastle1.jpg, Castle keep Image:Hirado Castle air.jpg, Aerial photo of Hirado Castle

References

* * * * *

External links

Hirado City home page

JCastle Information Page
{{Authority control Castles in Nagasaki Prefecture Museums in Nagasaki Prefecture History museums in Japan 100 Fine Castles of Japan