is a Japanese castle located in

Yurihonjō is a city located in Akita Prefecture, Japan. , the city has an estimated population of 76,077 in 30,639 households, and a population density of . The total area of the city is . Geography Yurihonjō is located in southwest corner of Akita Pre ...

, southern

Akita Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Provinces and prefectures" in ; "Tōhoku" in . Its population is approximately 966,000 (as of 1 October 2019) and its ge ...

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 end 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 characteriz ...

, Honjō Castle was home to the Rokugō clan, ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and n ...

'' of

Honjō Domain was a feudal domain in Edo period Japan, located in Dewa Province (modern-day Akita Prefecture), Japan. It was centered on Honjō Castle in what is now the city of Yurihonjō, Akita. History Much of Dewa Province was controlled by the powerfu ...

. The castle was also known as or .

History

Tateoka Mitsushige, a vassal of

Mogami Yoshiaki was a ''daimyō'' of the Yamagata Domain in Dewa Province, in the late Sengoku and early Edo periods. Known as "Fox of Dewa". Biography Mogami Yoshiaki was the first son of Mogami Yoshimori ( 最上義守), of the Mogami clan and succeeded hi ...

during 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 ...

, erected Honjō Castle in 1610 on a hill in the center of the Yuri region of central Dewa Province as the administrative center of his 45,000 ''

koku The is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. 1 koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about . It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1000 gō. One ''gō'' is the volume of the "rice cup", the plastic measuring cup that is supplied ...

'' domain. However, the Mogami were dispossessed by 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 ...

in 1622, with the majority of their holdings going to the

Satake clan The was a Japanese samurai clan that claimed descent from the Minamoto clan. Its first power base was in Hitachi Province. The clan was subdued by Minamoto no Yoritomo in the late 12th century, but later entered Yoritomo's service as vassals ...

, who were transferred from Hitachi Province to their new (and much smaller) holdings at Kubota Domain. At that time,

Rokugō Masanori was born in 1567 in Dewa Province, Japan, and entered into the service of Onodera Yoshimichi at Yokote Castle, subsequently fighting against Akita Sanesue. For services rendered during the Siege of Odawara in 1590, Toyotomi Hideyoshi rewarded ...

, a minor ''

'' with many scattered holdings, was also transferred to Dewa Province, and his holdings were concentrated into the compact 20,000 ''koku''

, which his descendants ruled for 11 generations to 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 ...

. During 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 ...

, Honjō Domain sided with the Ōuetsu Reppan Dōmei, and Honjō Castle was attacked and destroyed by forces of the led by the pro-imperial forces of

Shōnai Domain was a feudal domain in Edo period Japan, located in Dewa Province (modern-day Yamagata Prefecture), Japan. It was centered on Tsuruoka Castle in what is now the city of Tsuruoka in Yamagata Prefecture, and was thus also known as the . It was gov ...

in August 1868.

Description

Honjō Castle was built in three concentric layers on a low hill, with the main bailey in the center at the highest elevation, and the second bailey and third bailey forming terraces built by earthwork rather than stone walls, and each surrounded by a moat. The ruins of the site are now part of , where a portion of the moats, earthworks and a gate have been reconstructed.

Literature

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External links

Yurihonjo City HP
{{DEFAULTSORT:Honjo Castle Castles in Akita Prefecture Yurihonjō