2022年12月 – ページ 3 – 日本200名城バイリンガル (Japan's top 200 castles and ruins)

50.Hikone Castle Part2

There are so many attractions to see in this castle.

Features

Entering Sawayama Route

Today, Hikone Castle site has well been developed for visitors inside the Middle Moat (the second moat from the Inner Moat). There are three routes over the moat same as the past (Sawa-guchi, Kyobashi-guchi and Funamachi-guchi). Out of them, the Sawaguchi Route is the most popular as it is close from Hikone Station and to the front entrance of the castle. If you choose the route, you will first see the remaining the Sawaguchi-Tamon Turret on the left with a distant view of the Main Tower. The entrance to the castle consists of this turret and the other restored turret on the right. After entering, you will also see the remaining Stable which in the only remaining case in castles in Japan.

The aerial photo around the castle

The Sawaguchi-Tamon Turret on the left with a distant view of the Main Tower

Lots of Exhibition of Hikone Castle Museum

You can go across the bridge over the Inner Moat to enter the Front Gate Ruins as the front entrance of the castle. Inside the ruins, there is the Hikone Castle Museum which looks like the past Main Hall for the lord at the same place. The museum stores over 90,000 items about the Ii Clan and Hikone Domain and exhibits about 100 items of them.

You can see the items such as the unique Ii Clan’s Red Armor, swords, tee things, Noh masks and the remaining Noh stage. In the back of the museum, you should check out the restored part of the lord’s private quarters and Japanese Garden. They were restored in traditional methods using wooden materials based on the records and excavations.

The Red Armor which was said to be used by Naomasa Ii, exhibited by the *Hikone Castle Museum*

A tea jar called “Setotetsuyu-Shijiko” or “The Seto iron glaze jar with four handles”, exhibited by the Hikone Castle Museum

The remaining Noh stage, exhibited by the Hikone Castle Museum

the restored chamber of the lord’s private quarters, exhibited by the Hikone Castle Museum

The Japanese Garden, exhibited by the Hikone Castle Museum

Strong Line of Defense around Large Ditch

Let us next climb up the mountain to the center of the castle. After walking the long, wide stone steps, you will see a huge scale deep ditch with a bridge over it. You will need to go to the Taiko-maru Enclosure on the right side of the ditch to the center. However, you will first have to go on the bottom of the ditch, turn left to the other Kanenomaru Enclosure on the left, and go across the bridge to reach the enclosure. If you were an enemy, you would be counterattacked from both sides of the ditch, and the bridge would be fallen. The remaining Tenbin-Yagura or the Balance Turret also stands behind the bridge to protect the enclosure. It is said that this turret was built by moving the Main Gate of Nagahama Castle.

The stone steps to the center of the castle

The Large Ditch in front of the Balance Turret

The area around the Large Ditch drawn in the signboard at the site, with the additional red arrow which indicates the route

Turning left to the Kanenomaru Enclosure

Crossing the bridge to the Balance Turret

Looking down the bottom of the ditch from the bridge

Looking down the bridge from *the Balance Turret*

Contrasting Exterior and Interior of Main Tower

After passing the Taiko-maru Enclosure, you will reach the remaining Taiko-mon Yagura or the Drum Gate Turret, as the entrance of the Main Enclosure. There is only the Main Tower in the enclosure, but it looks very elegant.

The remaining Main Tower in the Main Enclosure

This is because this three-level tower has a lot of decorations such as Chinese styled gables with gold work, hip-and-gables, gable ends, bell-shaped windows and the decorated veranda.

Bell-shaped windows and the decorated veranda

You can enter the tower to look around from the first to the top which is the third floor. The interior of the tower is practical in contrast with its exterior. You can find many hidden loopholes for guns which would be used by breaking the outside walls. The holes have been left hidden because no battles occurred. It was also found that the tower was built by moving the four-level Main Tower of Otsu Castle and reducing to three levels.

The iron doors of the Main Tower Entrance

You can’t go out to the veranda at the top floor of the tower

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

50.彦根城　その２

見どころが山ほどある城です。

特徴、見どころ

佐和口から入城

現在、彦根城は、中堀（内堀から数えて２番目の堀）の内側がビジター向けによく整備されています。過去と同じようにこの堀を超えて中に入って行く道が３つあります（佐和口、京橋口、船町口）。その内、彦根駅に一番近く正面口となっている佐和口から行くのが最も一般的でしょう。もしこのルートを通ってみる場合は、最初に左手に、現存する佐和口多聞櫓と天守の遠景が見えてくるでしょう。城への入口は、この櫓と、右手の復元された櫓から構成されています。ここから入ると、現存する馬屋も見えてきます。日本の城の中に残っている唯一の馬屋です。

城周辺の航空写真

彦根城博物館の豊富な展示

内堀にかかる橋を渡って、城の正面入り口である表門跡に入って行きます。門跡の内側には彦根城博物館があり、同じ場所にあったかつての表御殿と同じ外観で建てられています。この博物館は井伊氏と彦根藩に関する９万以上の文物を収蔵し、その内約１００点を展示しています。

博物館では、例えば赤鎧、刀剣、茶道具、能面、そして現存する能舞台を見学することができます。博物館の奥の方には城主の奥向（日常生活の場）と庭園が一部復元されており見ものです。これらは記録や発掘の成果に基づき、木材を使った伝統的工法で建てられました。

強力な大堀切周辺の防御線

次に城の中心部分に向かって、山を登ってみましょう。長く幅広い石段を登っていくと、橋がかかっている巨大な深い堀切が見えてきます。城の中心部に向かうには、堀切の右側にある太鼓丸を通って行く必要があります。しかし、それにはまず堀切の底を通って、左に曲がり、左側の別の曲輪である鐘の丸に行き、その後橋を渡って太鼓丸に行き着きます。もし敵であったなら、堀切の底で両側の曲輪から攻撃を受け、橋は落とされてしまうでしょう。橋の背後には天秤櫓が立っており、太鼓丸を守っています。この櫓は、長浜城の大手門を移築したものだと言われています。

対照的な天守の外装と内装

太鼓丸を通り過ぎると、本丸の入口である、現存する太鼓門櫓に至ります。本丸には、天守だけが残っていますが、とても華麗な外観です。

この三層の天守には、金飾りがある唐破風、入母屋破風、切妻破風、花頭窓、高欄付きの回り縁など多くの装飾がなされているからです。

天守の中に入って一階から最上階の三階まで見て回ることができます。天守の内装は、外観と比べると実用的です。壁には多くの隠し狭間が備えてあり、使うときには外側の壁を壊すようになっていました。実際に使う機会がなかったので、隠されたままだったということになります。また、調査によりこの天守は、大津城の４層天守を移築し、３層に減じて建てられたことがわかっています。

「彦根城その３」に続きます。
「彦根城その１」に戻ります。

50.Hikone Castle Part1

The home base of the Ii Clan, a senior vassal of the shogunate

Location and History

Shogunate sent Ii Clan to Important Military Base

Hikone Castle is located near Biwa Lake in Shiga Prefecture and considered as one of the most popular historical sites in Japan. It has its Main Tower which is one of the twelve remaining and the five national-treasure Main Towers in Japan. It also has five castle buildings which are designated as Important Cultural Properties. The main portion of the castle also remains in a good condition with the buildings above, stone walls, and other structures. Because of it, the castle site has been designated as a National Special Historic Site since 1956.

The remaining Main Tower of Hikone Castle, as a National Traesure

The Western Enclosure Three-level Turret of Hikone Castle, as an Important Cultural Property

After the Battle of Sekigahara between Ieyasu Tokugawa and Mitsunari Ishida in 1600, Ieyasu got the power as the ruler of Japan. Ieyasu promoted his senior vassal, Naomasa Ii to the lord of the territory beside Biwa Lake, which Mitsuanri had owned. Naomasa first lived a mountain castle called Sawayama Castle Mitsunari lived. However, Naomasa thought it was not enough because he needed a stronger and more convenient castle. The Toyotomi Clan was still at Osaka Castle and there were many lords in western Japan, who thought their master was Toyotomi, not Tokugawa. They might have gotten together and attacked the Tokugawa Shogunate which Ieyasu established in eastern Japan. Naomasa’s territory was located in the area which could avoid the attack to eastern Japan.

The location of the castle

The portrait of Naomasa Ii, owned by Hikone Castle Museum (licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

Castle is built as Construction Order by Shogunate

After Naomasa died in 1602, his young son, Naotsugu conducted the new castle’s location with Ieyasu. They finally decided to build it on a low mountain at 50m high near Biwa Lake, which would be called Hikone Castle. The castle was built as a construction order by the shogunate with help of over 10 other lords. In order to hurry to complete the construction, they used waste materials from other abandoned castles like Sawayama Castle. However, the construction continued long since 1603, as the scale of castle was huge.

Hikone Castle was built from the top to the foot of the mountain

The Main Tower, Main Hall and other turrets were built together, surrounded by stone walls, on the ridge of mountain to make it easy to protect. Deep ditches were dug around both edges of the ridge to avoid enemies’ invasions to the center of the castle. Moreover, five long-line stone walls were built along the slopes of the mountain to prevent the enemies from moving smoothly.

The main portion of the castle on the mountain, from the signboard at the site

The large ditch in front of the Taiko-yagura Turret

The long-line stone walls behind the Main Gate

The mountain was surrounded by tripled water moats and the Main Gate was built behind them. The gate was open to the southwest direction towards Osaka Castle where the Toyotomi Clan lived. Seri-kawa River flowed out of the moats in this direction, so it could have been the forth moat.

The illustration of Hikone Castle and Town, *exhibited by Hikone Castle Museum*

The past Main Gate drawn in the signboard at the site

It becomes Castle for Peaceful Time

The castle was completed in 1622, about twenty years after its launch. However, the situation dramatically changed in 1615 during the construction. The Tokugawa Shogunate defeated the Toyotomi Clan in that year. After that, the construction was done only by the Hikone Domain building houses for living and government. As a result, the new Main Hall for the lord was built at the foot of the mountain on the opposite side of the Main Gate. The gate to the hall was called the Front Gate just like a new Main Gate. The castle town was also developed around the castle. They were either connected to Biwa Lake through waterways or ponds for water transportation.

Fortunately, no battles happened at Hikone Castle throughout the peaceful Edo Period. The lord of the castle, Ii Clan also played an important role in the central government as the head of hereditary feudal lords. Out of ten, five heads of the shogun’s council of elders came from the Ii Clan and it happened once in 265 years during that period. The most famous one is definitely Naosuke Ii at the end of the Edo Period. He decided to open more doors to foreign countries by signing the Treaty of Amity and Commerce between the US and Japan in 1858. However, he was unfortunately assassinated by the opposite Ronin outside the Sakurada-mon Gate of Edo Castle in 1860. This incident decreased the power and authority of the Tokugawa Shogunate and would be a trigger of the Meiji Restoration.

The portrait of Naosuke Ii, owned by Hikone Castle Museum (licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

To be continued in “Hikone Castle Part2”