was a 17th-century castle, now in ruins, in

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 ...

. It was designated one of

Japan's Top 100 Castles 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 Japanese Castle Foundation.

History

Sakura Castle fell to

Honda Tadakatsu , also called Honda Heihachirō (本多平八郎) was a Japanese samurai, general and daimyo of the late Sengoku through early Edo periods, who served Tokugawa Ieyasu. Honda Tadakatsu was one of the Tokugawa Four Heavenly Kings along with Ii N ...

and Sakai Ietsugu of the Tokugawa army during the

Siege of Odawara (1590) The third occurred in 1590, and was the primary action in Toyotomi Hideyoshi's campaign to eliminate the Hōjō clan as a threat to his power. The months leading up to it saw hasty but major improvements in the defense of the castle, as H ...

. Chiba Shigetane, daimyō of the Chiba clan, surrendered the castle to the besieging forces on the condition that his clan would not be abolished. Under the orders of his Lord,

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 ...

, Doi Toshikatsu started construction of this castle in 1610. It was completed in 1617. It was based on the foundations and unfinished work of the Chiba clan, who had started building Kashima Castle on the same site, in the earlier

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 ...

."Sakura Castle" jcastle.info http://www.jcastle.info/castle/profile/106-Sakura-Castle During the

Edo era 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 characteri ...

, it was ruled by powerful lords, all loyal to the Tokugawa rule. Sakura Castle was considered a location of strategic importance, in particular as it protected the eastern flank of Edo. At its peak it was a large complex; however, it was noted for having no stone walls. The defensive lines were reinforced by deep, dry

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...

s, and earthen embankments (

rampart Rampart may refer to: * Rampart (fortification), a defensive wall or bank around a castle, fort or settlement Rampart may also refer to: * "O'er the Ramparts We Watched" is a key line from "The Star-Spangled Banner", the national anthem of the ...

s) demarcated the baileys. The main keep was actually 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 ...

'' relocated from

Edo Castle is a flatland castle that was built in 1457 by Ōta Dōkan in Edo, Toshima District, Musashi Province. In modern times it is part of the Tokyo Imperial Palace in Chiyoda, Tokyo and is therefore also known as . Tokugawa Ieyasu established the ...

. The park was used for

army barracks Barracks are usually a group of long buildings built to house military personnel or laborers. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word "barraca" ("soldier's tent"), but today barracks are u ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Current site

There is little left of the original castle, except for the moats, earthen walls, and some stone stairs. The

National Museum of Japanese History The , commonly known in Japanese as Rekihaku, is a history museum in Sakura, Chiba, Japan. The museum was founded in 1981 as an inter-university research consortium, and opened in 1983. The collections of museum focus on the history, archaeology, a ...

stands on the site of the castle.

References

External links

* * http://japan-chiba-guide.com/narita-area/en/attractions/sakura-castle-park.html {{100 Fine Castles of Japan Former castles in Japan Castles in Chiba Prefecture

History

Current site

References

Further reading

External links