Waeseong in Jukseong-ri, Gijang (; ) is located in
Gijang-gun
Gijang County is a ''gun'', or county, located between Haeundae-gu and Ulsan in northern Busan, South Korea.
History
Gijang first appears under its current name in the annals of the year 757, during the Unified Silla period. At that time it wa ...
,
Busan
Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, w ...
,
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
. It is a stone
fortress
A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
built by the
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
general,
Kuroda Nagamasa
was a ''daimyō'' during the late Azuchi–Momoyama and early Edo periods. He was the son of Kuroda Kanbei, Toyotomi Hideyoshi's chief strategist and adviser.
Biography
His childhood name was Shojumaru (松寿丸). In 1577, when Nagamasa was a ...
who was defending the area against the Korean
Joseon
Joseon (; ; Middle Korean: 됴ᇢ〯션〮 Dyǒw syéon or 됴ᇢ〯션〯 Dyǒw syěon), officially the Great Joseon (; ), was the last dynastic kingdom of Korea, lasting just over 500 years. It was founded by Yi Seong-gye in July 1392 and re ...
army in about June 1593, during the second year of the
Imjin War
The Imjin River ( in South Korea) or Rimjin River ( in North Korea) is the 7th largest river in Korea. It flows from north to south, crossing the Demilitarized Zone and joining the Han River downstream of Seoul, near the Yellow Sea. The river i ...
.
This wall-fortress built on the stronghold in the rear coast of the village of Jukseong-ri, was 11,176 pyeongs (pyeong was a unit of area in the Joseon period) in area, about 300 metres in circumference, 4 metres in height, and three-storied. It has been called the Gijang fortress in
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 ...
. It was placed at the strategically important point linking together the
Seosaengpo Waeseong fortress in
Ulsan
Ulsan (), officially the Ulsan Metropolitan City is South Korea's seventh-largest metropolitan city and the eighth-largest city overall, with a population of over 1.1 million inhabitants. It is located in the south-east of the country, neighboring ...
, the
Hakseong fortress and the
Busanjinseong Fortress. Originally, it was built with the stones which had once constituted the
Dumopojinseong fortress, so there still remain the footstones of it in a row around the villages in Dumopo.
Today, the surrounding areas of the fortress are used as farming fields, but the stone wall still remains maintaining its original state relatively well.
Japanese-style castles in Korea
Castles in South Korea
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