特徴～Features – ページ 151 – 日本200名城バイリンガル (Japan's top 200 castles and ruins)

149.Komakiyama Castle Part2

You can see the legacies of Nobunaga and Ieyasu

Features

Mountain and Castle surrounded by Earthen Walls

Now we can still see Mt. Komakiyama covered with the green of the plants noticeable on the plain area. The building on the top is the Komaki City History Museum which looks like a Main Tower. Komaki City has been developing the whole of the mountain as a historical park. The city opened Komakiyama Castle Historical Site Information Center at the foot in 2019.

A view of Mt. Komakiyama from the city area

The aerial photo around the castle

When you get close to the mountain, you can find earthen walls and dry moats surrounding it. They were made by Ieyasu Tokugawa when the Battle of Komaki and Nagakute happened in 1584. From the Miyukibashi Entrance of the eastern side, you can enter the park across the wooden bridge through the alternate earthen walls. The bridge is not original but was built just for tourists to enter the park easily. Inside the walls, there are plain enclosures which were used for the houses of Nobunaga and his retainers, and also used as military posts of Ieyasu’s troops.

The mountain surrounded by the earthen walls

Main Road similar to Azuchi Castle

From the Main Entrance of the southern side, you can walk up the Main Route, which Nobunaga originally created, to the mountain. The route goes up straight to the mid-slope of the mountain and becomes zigzagged in the upper part. This formation is very similar to that of Azuchi Castle which was Nobunaga’s last home base. This meant he had his own ideas about building castles from an early age.

*The Main Route of Azuchi Castle* (above the mid slope)

Remaining Huge Stones and Stone Walls on Mountain

The Komaki City History Museum is on the top of the mountain where the Main Enclosure was. Around the top, you can see several huge stones lying down. In fact, these stones originally were built in the stone walls surrounding the Main Enclosure. Part of the stone walls still remain, and they were thought to be built by Ieyasu, not Nobunaga. However, the recent excavation found out that Nobunaga built these stone walls using huge stones. They were made into three tiers to demonstrate his authority. They are now recognized as a very early example of stone walls for a castle built in Nobunaga’s unique way.

The Komaki City History Museum *(licensed by Bariston via Wikimedia Commons)*

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

149.小牧山城　その２

信長と家康の遺産を見ることができます。

特徴

土塁に囲まれた山と城

現在でも、小牧山は緑の木々に覆われ、平地の上に目立って見えます。頂上にある建物は天守のように見えますが、小牧市歴史館です。小牧市は、この山全体を史跡公園として整備してきています。2019年には山麓に小牧山城史跡情報館がオープンしました。

城周辺の航空写真

山に近づくと、山を取り囲む土塁や空堀を目にすることができるでしょう。これらは1584年の小牧長久手の戦いの際に徳川家康により築かれたものです。東側の御幸橋入口から木橋を渡り、食い違いになっている土塁を通って公園の中に入っていきます。この橋はもとからあったものではなく、観光客が公園に入り易いように作られたものです。土塁の内側は平らな曲輪が広がっており、信長や家臣たちの館があり、また家康の軍勢の駐屯地となっていた所です。

安土城と似ている大手道

南側の正面入口からは、もとは信長が作った大手道を山に向かって登っていきます。この道は山の中腹まではまっすぐ伸びていてそこから上はジグザグになっています。この形態は、信長の最後の本拠地となった安土城のものととてもよく似ています。これは、彼が築城に関する考え方をかなり早くから持っていたことを意味します。

山上に残る巨石と石垣

小牧市歴史館が山の頂上にありますが、かつてはそこが本丸でした。頂上の周辺には、巨石がいくつも転がっているのが見えます。実はこれらの石はもともと本丸を囲む石垣として組み込まれていたものです。石垣の一部は今なお現存していますが、信長ではなく、家康が築いたものと考えられてきました。ところが、最近の発掘により、信長が巨石を使って築いたことが判明しました。三段積みにより作られ、彼の権威を表していたのです。現在では、信長独特の方法で築かれた、城の石垣としては非常に速い事例として認められています。

小牧市歴史館 (*licensed by Bariston via Wikimedia Commons*)

「小牧山城その３」に続きます。
「小牧山城その１」に戻ります。

39.Gifu Castle Part2

Please pay attention to both the top and foot of the mountain.

Features

The map around the castle

To Castle Ruins on Top

Now, the area around Mt. Kinkazan has become one of the most popular tourist spots in the Gifu Prefecture. You can easily go to the top of the mountain by the Kinkazan Ropeway. If you want to climb up there, it is common to use the Nanamagari Trail which was the Main Route for the castle. The tail is relatively gently sloped, so it takes around one hour to reach the top, climbing to about 300m from the ground.

A view of the Main Tower from the city area

The top is actually also a tourist spot where the ropeway terminal, a restaurant, a zoo, and the imitation Main Tower stand. The routes around the top have also been paved in a modern style. However, you can see rocky surfaces made of chert everywhere on the top. As for the ruins of the castle, there are the ruins of the First Gate where the huge stones for the gate collapsed. After seeing the defensive trenches called “Horikiri”, next comes the ruins of the Second Gate. Their plaster walls have been rebuilt recently, but some of the stone walls are original. You should check out the two steps of stone walls under the route from the Second Gate to the Main Tower. The method for building the stone walls is very old, so it is thought that they were built by Nobunaga.

The defensive trenches called “Horikiri”

The stone walls under the route to the Main Tower

A Great View from Main Tower

The imitation Main Tower was built in 1956, based on the drawings of the Three-Story Turret in Kano Castle. The turret was burned in the Edo Period, but there was a rumor that it might have been moved from the Gifu Castle. The interior of the tower is used as a museum which exhibits the history of the castle and Nobunaga. The top floor is also a sightseeing tower where you can see a great view of the area around, including Nagara-gawa River. The stone wall base of the tower looks very old. In fact, the stones are original, but the style is not, as the stones were re-piled when the tower was rebuilt.

A view from the Main Tower (Nagaragawa River side)

*A view from the Main Tower (Mountain side)*

You can also climb down on another tail, for example, from the ruins of the Back Gate. The gate also used huge stones of which you can see the remains on the route. After going down for a while, you can also see the huge, holy rock called “Eboshi-iwa”. The Inaba Shrine was originally located around the rock.

You can see rocky surfaces made of chert here and there

Ruins of Nobunaga’s Residence

At the foot of the mountain, I recommend that you visit the ruins of Nobunaga’s palace residence, because, in fact, it might have been the center of the castle. At the entrance, you can see the remains of the alternate huge stones which were 1.7m high in the past. Walking up the stairs around the terraced stone walls, there is an empty spacious space where the main building was constructed. In the back of it, there were also buildings for the tearoom and sightseeing with an artificial water garden using huge stones. Another pond garden was next to it, and an artificial river flew from the fountain between them. Moreover, these gardens were connected to the main building by the air corridors. Nobunaga seemed to use his palace residence for official ceremonies and for hosting important visitors.

The stairs to the ruins of the main building

The imaginary drawing of around the gardens *(Gifu Castle Museum)*

The imaginary drawing of the residence (from the signboard at the site)

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