is a flatland-style Japanese castle located in Miyazu, northern Kyoto 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 ...

. At the end of the Edo period, Miyazu Castle was home to a branch of the Honjō-Matsudaira, '' daimyō'' of Miyazu Domain.

History

The Miyazu area was the center of ancient Tango Province and the location of its provincial capital. From the Muromachi period, the area was ruled by the Isshiki clan who served as '' shugo''. However, in the Sengoku period, the area came under the control of the Hosokawa clan. Hosokawa Fujitaka (1564–1610) built the first Miyazu Castle at the end of Miyazu Bay in 1580. After the

Honnō-ji Incident The was an attempt to assassinate Japanese daimyo Oda Nobunaga at the Honnō-ji temple in Kyoto on 21 June 1582, resulting in the suicide by '' seppuku'' of both Nobunaga and his son Oda Nobutada. The unprotected Nobunaga was ambushed by his ...

, Fujitaka retreated to

Tanabe Castle Tanabe may refer to: People *Chikara Tanabe, Japanese Olympic wrestler *Chie Tanabe, Japanese stuntwoman * Daichi Tanabe, Japanese footballer *David Tanabe (born 1980), American professional ice hockey player * Harumichi Tanabe, bureaucrat and cab ...

, while his son, Hosokawa Tadaoki remained lord of Miyazu Castle. 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 ...

, Tadaoki was en route to 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 ...

with his troops in support of Tokugawa Ieyasu while Fujitaka was attacked by forces of the Western Army local to

Ishida Mitsunari Ishida Mitsunari (, 1559 – November 6, 1600) was a Japanese samurai and military commander of the late Sengoku period of Japan. He is probably best remembered as the commander of the Western army in the Battle of Sekigahara following the A ...

. Fujitaka set fire to Miyazu Castle and entrenched himself in Tanabe Castle, which he successfully defended at the Siege of Tanabe. The Tokugawa shogunate awarded the Hosokawa clan within transfer to

Buzen Province was an old province of Japan in northern Kyūshū in the area of Fukuoka Prefecture and Ōita Prefecture. It was sometimes called , with Bungo Province. Buzen bordered on Bungo and Chikuzen Provinces. History The ruins of the ancient capital ...

, and

Kyōgoku Takatomo was a ''daimyō'' of the Azuchi–Momoyama period and the early Edo period. He was the second son of Kyōgoku Takayoshi and Kyōgoku Maria, also Takatsugu's younger brother. In 1592 Toyotomi Hideyoshi gave him the domain at Iida (80,000 ''kok ...

was placed in charge of the newly-created Miyazu Domain, whose 123,000 ''

kokudaka refers to a system for determining land value for taxation purposes under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo-period Japan, and expressing this value in terms of ''koku'' of rice. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"Koku"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 54 ...

'' encompassed the entire province. In 1621, he divided his domain into three parts, with his heir, Kyōgoku Takahiro, receiving Miyazu. Kyōgoku Takahiro extensively reconstructed the castle into the current layout. However, his son Kyōgoku Takakuni was disposed by the shogunate in 1666 due to poor administration. The Nagai, Abe, Okudaira and Aoyama clans followed as lords of the castle, until finally Honjō-Matsudaira Sukemasa was assigned the domain in 1758. The Honjō-Matsudaira then remained until the Meiji Restoration in 1868, after which the castle fell into complete disrepair.

Background

Miyazu Castle makes extensive use of the Ōte River to the west as its outer moat. The complex consists of the inner bailey (Honmaru), a second bailey (Ninomaru) to the east and south, separated by a moat, and the third bailey (Sannomaru), also protected by a moat and stone walls. The castle never had a tenshu, but instead relied on eight two-story yagura watchtowers located at strategic points along the fortifications. At present, all of the moats have been filled in and the castle site itself has largely disappeared under urban encroachment. Only a few fragmentary sections of the stone walls survive in situ. One gate, the survives, but has been relocated to the entrance of the Miyazu Elementary School. It was restored in 2010. Old photographs show a stone bridge to the main gate of the castle. The original bridge was wood, and the stone bridge depicted dates from 1888. However, it is also now gone, having been replaced by the modern road. The '' Haiden'' of the Atago Shrine in the neighboring town of

Yosano, Kyoto 270px, ''Chirimen Kaido'' in Yosano is a town located in Yosa District, Kyoto, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 20,575 in 8978 households and a population density of 190 persons per km².The total area of the town is . Geograp ...

is a building that was relocated from the entrance of a shrine that once was located in Miyazu Castle.

Literature

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External links

Miyazu Castle at Japan Actle GuideMiyazu City home page
{{Authority control Castles in Kyoto Prefecture Ruined castles in Japan History of Kyoto Prefecture Miyazu, Kyoto Tango Province Kyōgoku clan