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 the city of Katsuyama

Fukui Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Fukui Prefecture has a population of 778,943 (1 June 2017) and has a geographic area of 4,190 km2 (1,617 sq mi). Fukui Prefecture borders Ishikawa Prefecture to the north, Gi ...

, in the

Hokuriku region The was located in the northwestern part of Honshu, the main island of Japan. It lay along the Sea of Japan within the Chūbu region, which it is currently a part of. It is almost equivalent to Koshi Province and Hokurikudō area in pre-modern ...

of Japan. Built in 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 ...

by the

Shibata clan The Shibata clan (新発田氏, ''Shibata shi'') was a Japanese clan that originated during the Heian period (12th century) of Japan. The Shibata clan of Echigo were descended from Sasaki Moritsuna, a supporter of Minamoto no Yoritomo and a son ...

, it was occupied by a succession of ''

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

Echizen-Katsuyama Domain was a Han (Japan), feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan.Edmond Papinot, Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003). It was based at Katsuyama Castle i ...

under 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 ...

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 site is now a public park.

History

Per the ''

Shinchō kōki is a Japanese literary magazine published monthly by Shinchosha. Since its launch in 1904 it has published the works of many of Japan's leading writers. Along with ''Bungakukai'', ''Gunzo'', '' Bungei'' and ''Subaru'', it is one of the five lea ...

'', Katsuyama Castle was built in 1579 by Shibata Katsuyasu, a relative of

Shibata Katsuie or was a Japanese samurai and military commander during the Sengoku period. He served Oda Nobunaga as one of his trusted generals, was severely wounded in the 1571 first siege of Nagashima, but then fought in the 1575 Battle of Nagashino an ...

, one of

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 ...

's leading generals, and Hara Nagayori was assigned as its castellan. The Shibata clan were destroyed in conflicts with

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 ...

, and after 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 ...

, the entire province of Echizen was assigned by

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 ...

to his second son,

Yūki Hideyasu was a Japanese samurai who lived during the Azuchi–Momoyama and early Edo periods. He was the ''daimyō'' of Fukui Domain in Echizen. Early life Hideyasu was born as in 1574, the second son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, by Lady Oman (also known as L ...

in 1601 as Fukui Domain. In 1624, Fukui Domain was divided, with Yūki Hideyasu's fifth son,

Matsudaira Naomoto The was a Japanese samurai clan that descended from the Minamoto clan. It originated in and took its name from Matsudaira village, in Mikawa Province (modern-day Aichi Prefecture). During the Sengoku period, the chieftain of the main line of t ...

being awarded a 30,000 ''

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 ...

'' fief centered at Katsuyama. This became Echizen-Katsuyama Domain. Matsudaira Naomoto was transferred to

Ōno Domain was a Han (Japan), feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan.Edmond Papinot, Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003). It was based at Ōno Castle (Echiz ...

in 1635, and was replaced by his younger brother,

Matsudaira Naoyoshi was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan. It is located in Echigo Province, Honshū. The domain was centered at Itoigawa Jin'ya, located in what is now part of the city of Itoigawa in Niigata Prefecture. History Ito ...

, who was in turn transferred to Ōno Domain in 1644, at which point the domain became part of the

tenryo 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' ...

territories under direct control of the shogunate. In 1691, Echizen-Katsuyama Domain was revived for a cadet branch of the

Ogasawara clan The was a Japanese samurai clan descended from the Seiwa Genji.Papinot, Jacques. (2003)''Nobiliare du Japon'' – Ogasawara, pp. 44–45 Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon.'' (in Fren ...

led by

Ogasawara Tadanobu Count was a Japanese samurai ''daimyō'' of the late Edo period. He was the head of Kokura Domain.Edmond Papinot. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon''digitized 1906 ''Nobiliaire du japon'' (2003)/ref>　 Ogasawara c ...

. The Ogasawara clan would rule Katsuyama for the next eight generations until 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 ...

. Tadanobu's son, Ogasawara Nobutora received permission from the shogunate in 1708 to rebuild the castle on the pretext of restoring the old structures; however, due to fires and lack of funds, the castle was not completed until 1799, only to burn down again in 1822. It was reconstructed in 1826, but was destroyed by the new

Meiji government The was the government that was formed by politicians of the Satsuma Domain and Chōshū Domain in the 1860s. The Meiji government was the early government of the Empire of Japan. Politicians of the Meiji government were known as the Meiji o ...

in 1871.

Current situation

The current Katsuyama city hall now stands on the site of the

inner bailey The inner bailey or inner ward of a castle is the strongly fortified enclosure at the heart of a medieval castle.Friar, Stephen (2003). ''The Sutton Companion to Castles'', Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 2003, p. 22. It is protected by the outer w ...

of the castle, with some remnants of the moat and ramparts remaining, along with the base of the

donjon 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 ...

. The castle should not be confused with the Katsuyama Castle Museum, also located in Katsuyama. The Museum is housed in a huge six-story faux-donjon built in 1992, housing numerous artefacts from the Edo period gathered from all over the country.

Literature

* * * *{{cite book , title=Japanese Castles 1540-1640 , url=https://archive.org/details/japanesecastles00turn , url-access=limited , last=Turnbull, first=Stephen, year=2003, publisher=Osprey Publishing, isbn=1-84176-429-9 , page
64
pages

External links

Japan Castle
Castles in Fukui Prefecture Former castles in Japan Ruined castles in Japan Katsuyama, Fukui Echizen Province Ogasawara clan Shibata clan Echizen-Matsudaira clan