is 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 Kameyama, northern

Mie Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Mie Prefecture has a population of 1,781,948 () and has a geographic area of . Mie Prefecture is bordered by Gifu Prefecture to the north, Shiga Prefecture and Kyoto Prefecture to ...

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 ...

, Kameyama Castle was home to the

Ishikawa clan is a Japanese samurai family which descended from the Seiwa Genji. Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003)"Ina" at ''Nobiliare du Japon'', p. 16 retrieved 2013-4-11. His ...

, ''

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

Ise-Kameyama Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Ise Province in what is part of now modern-day Kameyama, Mie. It was centered around Ise-Kameyama Castle. Ise-Kameyama Domain was controlled by ''fudai daimyō'' ...

. The castle was also known as .

History

The original Kameyama Castle was founded by Seki Sanetada in 1264 to the west of the present Kameyama Castle, and was one of the five fortifications guarding the clan domains in northern

Ise Province was a province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today includes most of modern Mie Prefecture. Ise bordered on Iga, Kii, Mino, Ōmi, Owari, Shima, and Yamato Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . History The name of Ise appears ...

. It came under occasional attack by the

Oda clan The is a Japanese samurai family who were daimyo and an important political force in the unification of Japan in the mid-16th century. Though they had the climax of their fame under Oda Nobunaga and fell from the spotlight soon after, several ...

to the north, and was overrun when

Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese ''daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period. He is regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. Nobunaga was head of the very powerful Oda clan, and launched a war against other ''daimyō'' to unify ...

extended his authority over Ise Province. In 1583, Hideyoshi defeated

Takigawa Kazumasu , also known as Sakonshōgen (左近将監), was a samurai retainer and military commander of Oda Nobunaga, and later Toyotomi Hideyoshi, during Japan's Sengoku period. His biological son, Toshimasu, was adopted by Toshihisa and later Kazumasu ...

at Kameyama castle. When Seki Kazumasa was relocated to Shirakawa in 1590, Okamoto Munenori, a retainer 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 ...

was given control of the castle. Okamoto moved the castle to the southeast and reconstructed all the main structures.Kansai Collection: Kameyama Castle
Organization of Kansai Unity. Accessed May 15, 2008. Under 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 castle became the headquarters of

, and the surrounding

castle town A castle town is a settlement built adjacent to or surrounding a castle. Castle towns were common in Medieval Europe. Some examples include small towns like Alnwick and Arundel, which are still dominated by their castles. In Western Europe, ...

prospered as a post station on the Tōkaidō highway connecting Edo with

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 ...

. In 1632, while under control of the

Miyake clan were a ''samurai'' kin group which rose to prominence in the Sengoku period and the Edo period. Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003).html" ;"title="DF 39 of 80">"Miyake ...

, the ''

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 ...

'' was demolished in error by

Horio Torizane Horio (堀尾) is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include: *, Japanese warlord *, Japanese warlord *, Japanese warlord See also * Halki (Greece) Halki ( el, Χάλκη; alternatively ''Chalce'' or ''Chalki'') is a Greek is ...

, who had confused ambiguously-worded orders by the shogunate with a command to rebuild the keep of

Kameyama Castle {{nihongo, Kameyama Castle, 亀山城, Kameyama-jō is the name of many castles in Japan. * Kameyama Castle (Aichi) in Shinshiro, Aichi Prefecture (formerly Mikawa Province) * Kameyama Castle (Mie) in Kameyama, Mie Prefecture (formerly Ise Prov ...

Tanba Province was a province of Japan in the area of central Kyoto and east-central Hyōgo Prefectures. Tanba bordered on Harima, Ōmi, Settsu, Tajima, Wakasa, and Yamashiro Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . In terms of the Gokishichidō system ...

. Despite the error, the shogunate refused permission to rebuild the ''tenshu''. Kameyama Castle served as a lodging facility for visits by the shoguns

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 ...

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

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 ...

when making formal visits to the Imperial Court in Kyoto. A specially-constructed palace was built in the main enclosure for the exclusive use of the Shogun, and the ''

'' of the castle was forced to reside in the Ni-no-Maru Second Bailey. In 1636,

Honda Toshitsugu is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a producti ...

received permission to build 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 ...

'' on the raised base of the former ''tenshu''. Named the "Tamon-yagura", this is one of the few surviving structures of the castle and was declared a historic site by the prefectural government in 1953.Mie Tourism Guide: Old Kameyama Castle
Mie Prefecture. Accessed May 15, 2008. In 1873, as per government decrees following 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 ...

, most of the remaining castle structures were demolished.Kameyama Castle (Ise)
. SamuraiWiki. Accessed May 15, 2008. One survivor is the entrance to the Ni-no-maru ''daimyō'' residence, which is incorporated into the main hall of the temple of Tensho-ji in the Nishimachi neighborhood of Kameyama. Aside from the Tamon-yagura, only the ruins of the 15-meter-high walls remain. A Buddhist temple of recent origin, Ōmoto-ji, and the Kameyama City History Museum stand on the grounds. Since 2001, the "Kameyama Castle Cherry Blossom Festival" has been held in the grounds annually. From 2006, as part of the Kameyama Castle area conservation and maintenance project, the Ni-no-maru enclosure and the surrounding area (including the Tamon-yagura) were restored to the state of the end of the Edo period. Restoration work was completed in 2013. The castle is a ten-minute walk north of JR Kameyama Station (

Kansai Main Line The is a railway line in Japan, which connects Nagoya Station with JR Namba Station in Osaka. It is jointly run by the Central Japan Railway Company (JR Central) and West Japan Railway Company (JR West), with the boundary between both comp ...

Kisei Main Line The is a railway line that parallels the coastline of the Kii Peninsula in Japan between Mie Prefecture and Wakayama Prefecture. The name takes the ''kanji'' characters from the names of the old provinces of and . The line is operated by Ce ...

Literature

* * * * *

External links

Kameyama Castle Jcastle Profile

Notes

{{reflist Castles in Mie Prefecture Honda clan Itakura clan Ogyū-Matsudaira clan Okudaira-Matsudaira clan Kameyama, Mie