was a

Muromachi period The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by t ...

"hirayama"-style

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

located on the border of the town of

Shisui is a town located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan., the town had an estimated population of 20,660 in 9,888 households and a population density of 1100 persons per km². The total area of the town is . Etymology The name of Shisui in the Japanese l ...

and the city of

Sakura A cherry blossom, also known as Japanese cherry or sakura, is a flower of many trees of Prunus, genus ''Prunus'' or Prunus subg. Cerasus, ''Prunus'' subg. ''Cerasus''. They are common species in East Asia, including China, Korea and especia ...

Chiba Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Chiba Prefecture has a population of 6,278,060 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Chiba Prefecture borders Ibaraki Prefecture to the north, Saitama Prefecture to the ...

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 ...

. Its ruins been protected as a National Historic Site since 1998.

Overview

Motosakura Castle was located on a long and narrow hill with an elevation of 30 meters, some two kilometers to the east 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 ...

Sakura Castle was a 17th-century castle, now in ruins, in Sakura, Chiba, Sakura, Chiba Prefecture. It was designated one of Japan's Top 100 Castles by the Japanese Castle Foundation. History Sakura Castle fell to Honda Tadakatsu and Sakai Ietsugu of the To ...

. When it was built in the Muromachi period, the castle was on the shore of the Gulf of Kashima, which extended into present-day Lake Kasumigaura, Lake Teganuma and Lake Inbanuma, and which formed the border between Shimōsa Province and Hitachi Province. The road between the political capital of

Kamakura is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Kamakura has an estimated population of 172,929 (1 September 2020) and a population density of 4,359 persons per km² over the total area of . Kamakura was designated as a city on 3 November 1939. Kamak ...

and the city of Chōshi on the

Pacific coast Pacific coast may be used to reference any coastline that borders the Pacific Ocean. Geography Americas Countries on the western side of the Americas have a Pacific coast as their western or southwestern border, except for Panama, where the Pac ...

and the mouth of the

Tone River The is a river in the Kantō region of Japan. It is in length (the second longest in Japan after the Shinano) and has a drainage area of (the largest in Japan). It is nicknamed Bandō Tarō (); ''Bandō'' is an obsolete alias of the Kantō ...

also passed through this location. The castle was approximately 800 meters in length by 700 meters in width and was roughly "L" shaped, utilizing the surrounding marshlands on three sides as a major component of its defenses.

History

This area was the home territory of the Chiba clan, one of the eight most powerful

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

clans in 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 ...

during the late

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. ...

Chiba Tsunetane Chiba may refer to: Places China * (), town in Jianli County, Jingzhou, Hubei Japan * Chiba (city), capital of Chiba Prefecture ** Chiba Station, a train station * Chiba Prefecture, a sub-national jurisdiction in the Greater Tokyo Area on ...

was an early supporter of Minamoto no Yoritomo and under the

Kamakura shogunate The was the feudal military government of Japan during the Kamakura period from 1185 to 1333. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Kamakura-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 459. The Kamakura shogunate was established by Minamoto no Y ...

was awarded most of Shimōsa and

Kazusa Province was a province of Japan in the area of modern Chiba Prefecture. The province was located in the middle of the Bōsō Peninsula, whose name takes its first ''kanji'' from the name of Awa Province and its second from Kazusa and Shimōsa province ...

s. However, after the fall of the Kamakura shogunate, the clan fragmented due to internal conflicts and lost most of its power and influence. By the middle of the 15th century, they had been reduced to vassals of their former retainers, the Hara clan. Makuwari Yasutane attacked Chiba castle, defeating the Chiba clan in 1455.He took the Chiba name, and the family continued to rule in the area, with Motosakura Castle was built by Chiba Suketane in 1469 under these reduced circumstances, and was gradually enlarged by his successors. However, they were only a small player surrounded by powerful and aggressive neighbors, such as 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 ...

from Hitachi and the

Satomi clan The was a Japanese samurai clan of the Sengoku period (1467–1573) and early Edo period (1603–1868). The clan ruled Awa Province as a ''Sengoku daimyō'' and was a major military power in the Kantō region during the wars of the Nanboku-ch ...

from Awa Province at the southern end of the Bōsō Peninsula, as well as the fluctuating authority of the Ashikaga clan who still nominally ruled eastern Japan via the '' Kantō kubō''. The Chiba clan survived through an alliance with the Odawara-based

Hōjō clan The was a Japanese samurai family who controlled the hereditary title of ''shikken'' (regent) of the Kamakura shogunate between 1203 and 1333. Despite the title, in practice the family wielded actual political power in Japan during this period ...

. With Hōjō support, Chiba Tanetomi (1527-1579) repeatedly defeated attacked by Uesugi Kenshin and by the Satomi clan. However, 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 ...

and after the death of Chiba Tanetomi, the clan was again weakened, and became direct vassals of the Hōjō. The Hōjō made efforts to strengthen the castle's defenses by increasing the size of its earthen ramparts and adding dry moats. With the defeat of the Hōjō at the hands 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 ...

in 1590 after the Battle of Odawara, the Chiba clan was also extinguished. The Kantō region was awarded by Hideyoshi to

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 ...

, who demolished most of the defenses of Motosakura Castle and established a '' jin'ya'', which was originally awarded to his fifth son, Takeda Nobuyoshi. Later,

Doi Toshikatsu was a top-ranking official in Japan's Tokugawa shogunate during its early decades, and one of the chief advisors to the second Tokugawa shōgun, Hidetada. The adopted son of Doi Toshimasa, Toshikatsu is generally believed to be the biological ...

resided at this castle as ''

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

Sakura Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Shimōsa Province (modern-day Chiba Prefecture), Japan. It was centered on Sakura Castle in what is now the city of Sakura, Chiba. It was ruled for most of its hi ...

while Sakura Castle was being constructed. 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 ...

's policy of "one castle per domain", the headquarters of Sakura Domain became Sakura Castle, and Motosakura Castle was abandoned in 1615. The castle town survived the loss of its castle as a post station on the Narita Kaidō highway.

Current

At present, the shape of central areas and portions of earthen walls survive and are maintained as a historical park. The site is approximately 15 minutes on foot from Ōsakura Station on the

Keisei Main Line {{Infobox rail line , name = Keisei Main Line , native_name = 京成本線 , native_name_lang = ja , color = 005aaa , logo = {{KSLS, KS, 50 , logo_width = , image = Keisei-Series3000-3042.jpg , image_width = 3 ...

. The castle is now only ruins, with some moats and earthworks. In 2017, the castle was listed as one of the Continued Top 100 Japanese Castles.

Gallery

File:Moat of Settei base(Settei Compound).jpg, Moat of Settei Compound File:Moat between Shiroyama base and Okunoyama base.jpg, Moat between Shiroyama compound and Okunoyama compound File:Gate of Shiroyama base(Compund).jpg, Masaugata gate of Shiroyama Compound File:Earthen wall of Shiroyama base(Compound).jpg, Earthen wall of Shiroyama Compound File:Higashiyama gate of Motosakura Castle.jpg, Higashiyama gate of Motosakura Castle

Literature

* * * *

References

External links

Shisui town official home page
{{Continued Top 100 Japanese Castles Castles in Chiba Prefecture Historic Sites of Japan Ruined castles in Japan Shisui Sakura, Chiba Go-Hōjō clan