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57.Sasayama Castle Part2

Visiting the main portion of the castle

Later History

After the Meiji Restoration, Sasayama Castle was abandoned and all the castle buildings, except for O-shoin or the Large Study Hall out of the Main Hall, were demolished. The hall was used as a school and a community center for a while, however, it was unfortunately burned down by an accidental fire in 1944. After World War II, the Inner Moat out of the double water moats was filled to became a normal park. However, since the castle ruins were designated as a National Historic Site in 1956, the trend changed. Tanba-Sasayama City has been developing the ruins as a historical site such as the hall being restored in 2000 and the moat being dug up again.

The photo of the Large Study Hall, in 1943, private owned (licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)
The Large Study Hall which was restored in 2000
The Inner Moat which was dug up again

Features

From Main Gate Ruins to Main Portion

Today, the ruins of Sasayama Castle have been developed by Tanba-Sasayama City with the remaining warriors’ houses and the castle town atmosphere. Visitors usually first visit the Main Gate Ruins in the north in front of the Outer Moat. Unfortunately, the gate and its Umadashi system were destroyed, so only their traces remain now.

The ruins of Umadashi system on the Main Route

The aerial photo around the castle

If you walk the path to the center of the ruins passing the Outer and Inner Moats, you will reach the ruins of the Front Gate and Kurogane-mon or the Iron Gate, the entrance of the main portion. These ruins are still surrounded by stone walls of double Masugata system, which you can imagine the main gate had a similar system to it.

The Onter Moat at the northern side
The path over the Outer Moat
The area around the former Main Gate
The earthen bridge over the inner Moat
The ruins of the Front Gate, which has the first Masugata system behind
Going to the second Masugata system
The ruins of the Iron Gate

Restored Large Study Hall in Second Enclosure

The main portion has the Second Enclosure in the front and the Main Enclosure in the back. You can enter the restored Large Study Hall with the historical museum. You will first get in the museum where you can learn the history of the castle

The entrance of the historical museum
One of the exhibitions in the museum

Then, go in the hall where you can experience what it looked like in the past. The Large Study Hall was used for public ceremonies which has an impressive large hip-and-gable roof above the front entrance. Visitors enter it not from the front but from the side and walk around the corridors surrounding the rooms. There are eight rooms inside such as Honored Guest Room, Dark Room for storing, and Tiger Room for waiting.

The front side of the Large Study Hall
Visitors enter the hall form the right side
The Tiger Room
Here is the inside of the front entrance
The Honored Guest Room

There are also the flat exhibitions of the residential area for the lord and the ruins of Uzume-mon or the Small Back Gate behind the hall.

The flat exhibitions of the residential area in the Second Enclosure
The ruins of the Small Back Gate

Stone Wall Base for Main Tower with Viewing Spot

The Main Enclosure is the highest point of the castle. The inside of it looked to be a square during the Edo Period, but the Aoyama Shrine, which worships the Aoyama Clan, the last lord family of the castle, has been there since its launch in 1882.

The Second Enclosure in the front, the Main Enclosure in the back
The Aoyama Shrine in the Main Enclosure

The large stone wall base for the Main Tower is at a corner of the enclosure, which is a good viewing spot of the city area. You can also see a triangle-shaped Takashiroyama-Mountain in the distance, where the ruins of Yagami Castle, which was active in the Sengoku Period, is. The stone wall base had a very small single turret for its scale at the edge during the Edo Period.

The stone wall base for the Main Tower
The top of the base
The ruins of Ygami Castle
The appearance of the Main Enclosure during the Edo Period, exhibited by the historical museum in the Large Study Hall of Sasayama Castle

To be continued in “Sasayama Castle Part3”
Back to “Sasayama Castle Part1”

57.篠山城　その２

城の主要部を訪れます。

その後

明治維新後、篠山城は廃城となり、御殿の一部である大書院（おおしょいん）を除き、全ての城の建物は撤去されました。大書院はしばらくの間、学校や集会所として使われていましたが、残念なことに1944年に失火により焼失してしまいました。第二次世界大戦後には、二重の堀のうち、内堀は公園造成のために埋め立てられました。しかし、1956年に城跡が国の史跡に指定されてからは、風向きが変わりました。丹波篠山市は、2000年に大書院を復元したり、内堀を掘り起こしたりして、城跡を歴史公園として整備しています。

焼失前の大書院の写真、1943年、個人蔵  (licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)
2000年に復元された大書院
掘り返された内堀

特徴、見どころ

大手門跡から桝形が残る主要部入口へ

現在篠山城跡は、現存する武家屋敷群や城下町の街並みとともに、丹波篠山市によりよく整備されています。ビジターは通常、北側にある外堀前の大手門跡から城跡巡りを始めます。残念ながら大手門とその前にあった馬出しは、破壊されてしまっていて、その痕跡のみが残っています。

城周辺の航空写真

大手馬出し跡

外堀と内堀を通り過ぎて中心部に向かう通路を歩いていくと、城の主要部の入口である表門（おもてもん）及び鉄門（くろがねもん）跡に至ります。ここは今でも二重の桝形を形作っている石垣に囲まれています（更に、二重の桝形はもう一つの中門によって仕切られていました）。よって、大手門も似たような仕組みであったのだと想像できます。

北側の外堀
外堀を渡る通路
大手門があった辺り
内堀を渡る土橋
表門跡、背後が桝形になっています
２つめの桝形に入っていきます（色が違う舗装部分が中門跡）
鉄門跡

復元された二の丸大書院

城の主要部は、前面が二の丸で、後ろの方が本丸となっています。史料館が付属している復元された大書院に入っていきましょう。最初に入る場所が史料館であり、そこでは城の歴史を学ぶことができます。

史料館の入口
史料館の展示の一部

それから大書院に入りますが、中の様子がどうだったのか実際に見て回ることができます。大書院は過去には公式行事のために使われ、正面玄関の上の印象的で大型の入母屋式屋根が目を引きます。現代のビジターは、その玄関からではなく、側面から大書院に入り、部屋を囲む回り廊下を歩いていきます。部屋は８つあり、上段の間、倉庫として使われた闇がり（くらがり）の間、待機場所となっていた虎の間などです。

大書院（正面）
ビジターは正面から見て右側面から入っていきます
虎の間
この辺りが正面玄関の内側
上段の間

大書院の向こう側には、藩主が暮らした住居地区の平面展示、埋門（うずめもん）跡などがあります。

二の丸の住居跡平面展示
埋門跡

本丸と眺めがよい天守台石垣

本丸は城で一番高い位置にあります。江戸時代の間はその内部は空になっていましたが、最後の城主であった青山氏を祀る青山神社が、1882年の設立以来ここにあります。

手前が二の丸、奥が本丸
本丸にある青山神社

大きな天守台石垣が本丸の角地にあり、市街地を望むビューイングスポットになっています。遥かには、三角形の形をした高城山も見えます。そこには八上城（やがみじょう）跡があり、戦国時代に使われていました。天守台石垣の隅には、江戸時代にその大きさに比して随分小さな単層の櫓が建てられていました。

天守台石垣
天守台の上
八上城跡
江戸時代の天守台の様子、、篠山城大書院史料室にある城の模型より

「篠山城その３」に続きます。
「篠山城その１」に戻ります。

57.Sasayama Castle Part1

One of the castles which were built to surround Osaka Castle

Location and History

Tanba, Important Province for Rulers

Sasayama Castle was located in modern day Tanba-Sasayama City, in Hyogo Prefecture. Hyogo is a large prefecture which covers the western part of the Kansai Region. However, the castle was located at that time in Tanba Province which is much smaller than Hyogo Prefecture but was located in mountain areas just behind the northwest of Kyoto, the previous capital of Japan. That meant governing Tanba Province was very important to protect Kyoto and monitor if the lords in western Japan would do something effective to the central political circles.

The range of Tanba Province and the location of the castle

Castle construction is ordered by Shogunate

Ieyasu Tokugawa defeated Mitsunari Ishida supporting the Toyotomi Clan in the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 and established the Tokugawa Shogunate by becoming the shogun in 1603. However, the situation was still unstable because the Toyotomi Clan was still living in Osaka Castle, which was uncontrollable by the shogunate. In addition, there were many lords in western Japan, who were in favor of the Toyotomi Clan and might have been against the shogunate in the future. The response of Ieyasu to the situation was to build several strong castles around Osaka Castle to contain the Toyotomi Clan and divide the Toyotomi Clan and its favors. They are known as Nagoya, Iga-Ueno, Hikone, Zeze, Nijo in Kyoto, Kameyama and Sasayama Castles. These castles were built as the construction orders by the shogunate, which made lords including the Toyotomi Clan favors join at their own expenses. The side effects of the constructions were to reduce the lords’ money and force them to give up their rebellious split to be against the shogunate by showing the strong network of the castles.

The Portrait of Ieyasu Tokugawa, attributed to Tanyu Kano, owned by Osaka Castle Museum (licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

The network of the castles around Osaka Castle, which Ieyasu built

The construction of Sasayama Castle launched in 1603, which was instructed by Terumasa Ikeda who was the lord of Himeji Castle, with the help of 20 lords from 15 provinces and was designed by Takatora Todo who was considered as a master of castle constructions. The castle was built on a hill called Sasayama, in the Sasayama Basin. The main portion of the castle was on the hill, using the natural terrain and building high stone walls over the hill. Other than that, the castle had simple flat square enclosures and double water moats surrounding it. That designs made it easier to build the castle, but it would made it weaker to protect the castle instead.

The Portrait of Terumasa Ikeda, owned by Tottori prefectural art museum (licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)
The portrait of Takatora Todo, private owned (licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)
The main portion of Sasayama Castle, from the miniature model of the castle, exhibited by the historical museum in the Large Study Hall of Sasayama Castle
The castle was surrounded by the double water moats, from the miniature model of the castle, same as above

Castle is designed by Takatora Todo

To prevent enemies from attacking it easily, Takatora designed the castle’s entrances to be strictly protected using the Masugata system. The Masugata refers to a defensive square space which was surrounded by gates and stone walls where enemies would be locked out. Another defensive system that Takatora designed was the Umadashi. It refers to a square enclosure sticking out from the entrance connected by a narrow path among the moat. The enclosure had another moat in front of it, so its entrances were at both sides where the defenders could counterattack from them. Takatora established these structures in his own Imabari Castle which was completed in 1604.

The Umadashi and Masugata systems at the Main Gate of Sasayama Castle, from the miniature model of the castle, same as above
Imabari Castle
The Masugata system of Imabari Castle, from the signboard at the site

Main Tower is not built

On the other hand, Sasayama Castle didn’t have its Main Tower in the Main Enclosure on the top. In fact, the stone wall base for the tower was built, however, the tower was not built. This was because the shogunate determined the castle would not need it as it would be enough to protect the castle without it. Another reason was that the lords working for the construction also needed to move to the another site for Nagoya Castle. That’s why Sasayama Castle was completed after only a half year of construction. Instead, several turrets were built in the Main Enclosure and the Main Hall for the lord was built in the Second Enclosure, which constituted the main portion of the castle.

The stone wall base for the Main Tower of Sasayama Castle
The Main Enclosure of Sasayama Castle, where its Main Tower was not built, from the miniature model of the castle, same as above
The Large Study Hall, the restored building of the Main Hall in the Second Enclosure of Sasayama Castle

The castle was first owned by Yasushige Matsudaira, a relative of Ieyasu Tokugawa. After the shogunate defeated the Toyotomi Clan in 1615, several hereditary feudal lords followed the castle to monitor non-hereditary feudal lords in western Japan as the Sasayama Domain, such as the Aoyama Clan which governed the area until the end of the Edo Period.

The portrait of Yasushige Matsudaira (licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)
A general view of Sasayama Castle, from the signboard at the site

To be continued in “Sasayama Castle Part2”