is a ''hirayama''-style Japanese castle. It was the seat of various '' fudai daimyō'' clans who ruled over

Kakegawa Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan. The domain was centered at Kakegawa Castle in Tōtōmi Province, in what is now the city of Kakegawa, Shizuoka.

, Tōtōmi Province, in what is now central Kakegawa,

Shizuoka Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Shizuoka Prefecture has a population of 3,637,998 and has a geographic area of . Shizuoka Prefecture borders Kanagawa Prefecture to the east, Yamanashi Prefecture to the northea ...

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 ...

Background

Kakegawa Castle is located at a small hill in the center of Kakegawa, which had been an important post station on the Tōkaidō highway connecting

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

with eastern Japan since the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japanese. ...

. Because of its geographical location, Kakegawa was strategic point in controlling the eastern half of Tōtōmi province.

History

The first Kakegawa Castle was built by Asahina Yasuhiro in the Bunmei era (1469–1487), a retainer of the warlord Imagawa Yoshitada to consolidate his holdings over Tōtōmi Province. The castle remained in the hands of the succeeding generations of the Asahina clan. After the defeat of the Imagawa clan at the Battle of Okehazama, the former Imagawa territories were divided between

Takeda Shingen , of Kai Province, was a pre-eminent ''daimyō'' in feudal Japan. Known as the "Tiger of Kai", he was one of the most powerful daimyō with exceptional military prestige in the late stage of the Sengoku period. Shingen was a warlord of great ...

of Kai and

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 fellow ...

of Mikawa. Kakegawa Castle was surrendered to Tokugawa forces in 1568 by Asahina Yasutomo after a five month siege. The surrounding area remained a territory contested between the Tokugawa and Takeda for many years; however, Kakegawa Castle remained in Tokugawa hands until the fall of the Takeda clan. After the Battle of Odawara in 1590 and the rise to power of

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 ...

, Tokugawa Ieyasu was forced to trade his domains in the

Tōkai region The is a subregion of the Chūbu region and Kansai region in Japan that runs along the Pacific Ocean. The name comes from the Tōkaidō, one of the Edo Five Routes. Because Tōkai is a sub-region and is not officially classified, there is s ...

for the

Kantō region The is a geographical area of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. In a common definition, the region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures: Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba and Kanagawa. Slight ...

instead. Kakegawa was relinquished to Toyotomi retainer

Yamauchi Kazutoyo , also spelled Yamanouchi (1545/1546? – November 1, 1605). He was retainer of Oda Nobunaga and later Toyotomi Hideyoshi. His father Yamauchi Moritoyo, was a descendant of Fujiwara no Hidesato, a senior retainer of the Iwakura Oda clan (op ...

as the center of a new 51,000 ''

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 ...

'' (later 59,000 ''koku'') domain. Yamauchi Kazutoyo completely rebuilt the castle per the latest contemporary designs, and the current layout and much of the stone walls and moats date from his period. After 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 ...

, the Tokugawa recovered their lost territories, and reassigned Tōtōmi to various '' fudai

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 ...

''. The Yamauchi clan was reassigned to

Kōchi Kochi is a city in Kerala, India. Kochi or Kōchi may also refer to: People * Kochi people, a predominantly Pashtun nomadic people of Afghanistan * , a Japanese surname: ** Arata Kochi (born 1948 or 1949), Japanese physician and World Health Org ...

in Shikoku, and Kakegawa was assigned initially to

Hisamatsu Sadakatsu was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the early Edo period, who served the Tokugawa clan. He was the half-brother of Tokugawa Ieyasu. His father was Hisamatsu Toshikatsu and his mother was Odai no Kata, Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and fir ...

. Over the years, numerous ''daimyō'' clans ruled Kakegawa Domain, ending with seven generations of the

Ōta clan The was samurai kin group which rose to prominence in Sengoku and Edo period Japan.Papinot, Jacques. (2003)''Nobiliare du Japon'' -- Ōta, pp. 48 Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon.'' ( ...

. The keep built by the Yamauchi was destroyed in an earthquake in 1604, and reconstructed in 1621. The castle was kept in repair through 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 ...

, however it suffered from extensive damage in 1854, due to the Ansei Tōkai earthquake. Many structures were rebuilt by 1861, and were in use 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 ...

as local government offices; however, 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 ...

was not rebuilt after the earthquake.

Today

Kakegawa Castle remained in ruins through the

Shōwa period Shōwa may refer to: * Hirohito (1901–1989), the 124th Emperor of Japan, known posthumously as Emperor Shōwa * Showa Corporation, a Japanese suspension and shock manufacturer, affiliated with the Honda keiretsu Japanese eras * Jōwa (Heian ...

, with the exception of the (''daimyō''s mansion), built by

Ōta Sukekatsu was the 6th ''daimyō'' of Kakegawa Domain in Tōtōmi Province, (modern-day Shizuoka Prefecture) in late-Edo period Japan and 10th hereditary chieftain of the Kakegawa-Ōta clan. Biography Ōta Sukekatsu was the eldest son of Ōta Sukemoto, the ...

after the earthquake, and registered with the government in 1980 as an Important Cultural Property. Other surviving portions of the castle included a portion of the moats and stone walls, and the drum house. A gate from the main bailey of the castle built in 1659 was given to the Buddhist temple of Yusan-ji in

Fukuroi 270px, Shizuoka Stadium is a city located in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 88,395 in 34,842 households, and a population density of 820 persons per km². The total area of the city was . Fukuroi is a me ...

, where it now serves as the main gate of that temple. It is also a National ICP. In April 1994, sections of the innermost bailey (''honmaru''), including some walls, a ''

yagura Yagura may refer to: * Yagura castle * Yagura opening * Yagura (tombs) * Yagura (tower) is the Japanese word for "tower", "turret", "keep", or "scaffold". The word is most often seen in reference to structures in Japanese castle compounds bu ...

'', and the keep (''tenshukaku''), were reconstructed using the original methods. The ''tenshukakus reconstruction was done based on a few diagrams of the original ''tenshukaku'' that survived, and marked the first time in post-war Japan that a ''tenshukaku'' had been reconstructed in wood using the original construction methods.Turnbull, Steven. ''Castles of Japan''. Osprey Publishing. 2003. The cost of 1 billion yen for the reconstruction was raised largely through public donation. In 2006, the site of Kakegawa Castle was listed as 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, primarily due to its historical significance.

Notes

References

* * * * * *

External links

Profile at J-Castle

Shizuoka Prefecture Tourism AssociationJapan Visitor’s Guide
{{Authority control Castles in Shizuoka Prefecture Museums in Shizuoka Prefecture History museums in Japan 100 Fine Castles of Japan Kakegawa, Shizuoka Important Cultural Properties of Japan Ōta clan