English – ページ 102 – 日本200名城バイリンガル (Japan's top 200 castles and ruins)

76.Tokushima Castle Part1

Many evolution of Tokushima Castle

Location and History

Iemasa Hachisuka built Castle

Tokushima Castle was located in what is the modern day Tokushima City. The prefectural capital of Tokushima Prefecture is Tokushima City. The old name for Tokushima Prefecture was called Awa Province, where the Chosokabe Clan and the ruler, Hideyoshi Toyotomi battled in the late 16th Century during the Sengoku Period. Hideyoshi finally won and he gave the province to his senior vassal, Iemasa Hachisuka in 1585. Iemasa first lived in one of the major mountain castles, called Ichinomiya Castle, but he soon moved to another place in 1586, building a new castle named Tokushima Castle.

The location of the castle

The portrait of Iemasa Hachisuka, private owned (licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

building network of sea transportation

Tokushima Castle was built on Inoyama Mountain which was 62m high on a sandbank called Inotsu. The sandbank was among the delta of Yoshino-gawa River, the largest river in Shikoku Island. The place where the castle was built was not spacious for the lord of the province. It was said that Hideyoshi suggested that the castle should be built at that place. So why did he instruct Iemasa to build the castle at such a place? Historians speculate that Hideyoshi tried to build the network of sea transportation with his home base, Osaka Castle. Tokushima was renamed by Inotsu and had a location which was capable of controling the sea lanes such as Kii Channel. The area was the entrance to Osaka Bay in which Osaka Castle was facing. The network consisted of both navy and merchant fleets. Another possible reason was that The Hachisuka Clan still had to send their retainers to branch castles called the Awa Nine Castles against the resistances of Chosokabe. That meant Hachisuka’s home base didn’t need a large space.

Part of the illustration of Tokushima Castle in Awa Province, exhibited by the National Archives of Japan, you can see the castle was built among the sandbanks

The relief map around the castle, Inoyama Mountain stands out among the delta

The positional relation between Tokushima Castle and Osaka Castle

Center of Castle was once on Mountain

Inoyama was a dogleg mountain which extended from the east to the west. The Main Enclosure was on the highest, the largest and rounded part of the mountain, which was thought to have the first Main Tower and the first Main Hall for the lord. However, the Main Tower was scraped about 30 years after its foundation for some unknown reasons and rebuilt in the Eastern Second Enclosure of the lower eastern part of the mountain. This was a very rare case because most castles had their Main Tower at the highest point of the mountain. There’s only one other castle that had a similar case, which was Mito Castle. However, its reason was more obvious. Its main reason was that it was small and inconvenient. The western part of the mountain also had the Western Second Enclosure and the Western Third Enclosure that protected the Main Enclosure. These enclosures on the mountain got surrounded by stone walls one by one. On the other hand, the plain area on the sandbank in the south of the mountain was not fully developed. Experts speculate that there were probably two main halls instead of one primary hall on the mountain. This secondary hall on the plain area was used as the home of the lord and its warriors. Tokushima Castle was specifically designed for battles that took place during the first generation of its existence.

The enclosures were built on Inoyama Mountain, the Main Tower was built on the lower eastern part. not on the Main Enclosure (*Part of the illustration of Tokushima Castle in Awa Province*)

The aerial photo around Mito castle

The old photo of the Main Tower of Mito Castle at the Second Enclosure

Center of Castle moves to plain area

After the Tokugawa Shogunate defeated the Toyotomi Clan in 1615, the governance of the shogunate finally became stable. The Hachisuka Clan was also able to spread their territory by adding the Awaji Province through supporting the shogunate. Due to the long period of peace, The nine branch castles were eventually abandoned. As a result, the retainers gathered in Tokushima Castle which needed to be reconstructed. The large scale of the Main Hall for the lord was rebuilt on the plain area and became the center of the castle. It was also surrounded by stone walls with several turrets, and fences called Byobu-bei along with the Inner Moat and the Terashima-gawa River. The southern side of it had the Kuro-mon Gate as its main gate with the three-story turret called Taiko-yagura next to it, which looked like the main tower. In addition, there was also the Miki Enclosure in the south of the Main Hall with the front gate called Washi-no-mon. Many of the rivers around the castle were also reclaimed and turned into the warriors’ residences and the castle town. The Hachisuka Clan lived in the castle until the end of the Edo Period.

The plain area where the Main Hall was built, the hall was not drawn intentionally (Part of the illustration of Tokushima Castle in Awa Province)

The Kuro-mon Gate and Taiko-yagura Turret (Part of the illustration of Tokushima Castle in Awa Province)

The Miki Enclosure and Washi-no-mon Gate (Part of the illustration of Tokushima Castle in Awa Province)

To be continued in “Tokushima Castle Part2”

175.Shozui Castle Part3

Huge ruins appeared from a factory ground.

Later History

After Shozui Castle was abandoned, the Kensho-ji Temple was built on the castle part, while the hall part was turned into the city area. As time passed, people thought Shozui Castle had only the castle part. However, the excavation in 1994 found that the castle part is too new for the castle’s long history. The officials did further research around the area and then found the relics of the hall for the lord under the ground of a factory nearby in 1997. Several excavations found that the hall part was much larger than expected and the ruins are very important to understand the history of the local region as well as the whole country. The ruins were lastly designated as a National Historic Site including both the castle and hall parts in 2001. The hall part is now public-owned and still being excavated.

A factory was once built on the hall part (from the signboard at the site)

The excavation started at the factory ground *(from the signboard at the site)*

My Impression

I can honestly say that I was disappointed when I visited the ruins of Shozui Castle. This was because the ruins at first looked just like an empty space and small castle ruins. However, as I learned about the history of the castle, I understood that the ruins are being developed after the outstanding discovery. I believe that the ruins will become a good historical park with other new findings after a while. If you plan to visit the ruins, I recommend learning about its history in advance. In addition, it’s best to visit the ruins on the days except for the New Year’s holiday season when the office is open, then you can see some of the relics unearthed from the ruins. I couldn’t see them because I visited on a public holiday when the office was closed at that time.

How to get There

If you want to visit there by car:
It is about 15 minutes away from Itano IC on Takamatsu Expressway or Aizumi IC on Tokushima Expressway.
The ruins offer parking lots in the hall part and beside the castle part.
By train, it takes about 15 minutes walking from JR Shozui Station.
If you go there from Tokyo or Osaka, I recommend using a plane or an express bus.

That’s all. Thank you.
Back to “Shozui Castle Part1”
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175.Shozui Castle Part2

The ruins have two parts of “Hall” and “Castle”.

Features

“Hall Ruins” and “Castle Ruins”

Now, the ruins of Shozui Castle have two parts. One of them is the larger part which was used as the hall for the Hosokawa Clan and the Miyoshi Clan. Therefore, people often call it “Shozui Hall ruins”. This area is basically an open space where a lot of relics are buried under the ground. The excavation is still ongoing with the site office. If some relics are found, they are investigated, studied, and finally buried again or taken to preserve them. After that, some exhibitions are built in the present way at the spot where the relics were found.

The aerial photo around the castle

Excavation and Exhibition are on going in Hall Ruins

For example, the replica of the water moats with some bridges were built at the same place and in a similar size to the original ones. Visitors can now see how the hall area was divided by these moats in the past. In addition, the rest house which looks like a hall was built where the relics of the original hall were found. Near the rest house, some trees and rocks were restored where the original Japanese rock garden was built. There are also many signboards which explain what were there and what happened to the castle.

An example of the signboards at the site

Castle Ruins remain as Temple

The other part is the one which was added as the final part for a battle in the final stage of the castle. It looks more likely to be castle ruins, so people also often call itself “Shozui Castle ruins”. However, this part is much smaller than the hall part with about 100 m square (vs 200 to 300 m square for the hall). This is probably because the castle part was built and used in a short time. There is Kensho-ji Temple on the ruins, which was established in the Edo Period, collecting the graves of the Miyoshi Clan. The water moats and some earthen walls surrounding the ruins still remain. The original earthen walls were 14m high from the bottom of the moat (2.5m above the water surface) according to the excavation.

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