English – ページ 92 – 日本200名城バイリンガル (Japan's top 200 castles and ruins)

136.Torigoe Castle Part2

Well developed ruins of a mountain castle

Features

Enclosures built using Natural Terrain

Today, the ruins of Torigoe Castle are well restored for visitors. If you drive to the ruins, you can easily go up to the parking lot near the top of the mountain. After parking, you can walk on the path to the center of the ruins. This path goes through the Rear Third Enclosure and the Rear Second Enclosure. These enclosures protected the Main Enclosure in the north. Similarly, the Third Enclosure and the Second Enclosure also protected the Main Enclosure in the south. Moreover, the Belt Enclosures surrounded the enclosures mentioned above for connection or a defense perimeter.

The aerial photo around the castle

For example, if you look at the Rear Second Enclosure, you can see it has a deep dry moat and is highly heaped. You can imagine the builders dug the moat and made the enclosure by heaping the soil from the moat on natural terrain. Some wooden fences were probably built along the enclosure. Some buildings were also built in the enclosure, where you can see the remnants of them now.

The Rear Second Enclosure seen from the Main Enclosure

Restored Buildings and Stone Walls

You can go further to the Central Enclosure in front of the Main Enclosure. Due to the achievement of the excavation, some buildings were restored. One of them is the Central Enclosure Gate, which may have been the front gate of the castle. Another is a barrack which is also currently used as the rest house.

The restored barrack and rest house for visitors

You can finally enter the Main Enclosure through the Masugata-mon Gate which is surrounded by the only stone walls in the castle. They were also restored in recent times, and originally built by Nobunaga Oda’s troops. This was because the castle was changing hands between the Kaga Ikko uprising and Oda during the conflict. Masugata refers to a square space inside or outside of the entrance, which has made it more defensive. In the back of the Masugata, there is, likewise, the restored turret styled Main Enclosure Gate, which was originally built by the Kaga Ikko uprising.

You can enjoy View and see Good Location

Inside the Main Enclosure, there were a lot of buildings discovered during the excavation. However, the purpose of them is still uncertain, so only columns and stone foundations are shown for visitors. In addition, some wooden fences on the earthen walls, a well, and large jars for storage are restored in the enclosure. From the enclosure, you can see a good view of both sides of the mountain in the east and west, being at a good location for lookout and protection.

A view from the Main Enclosure (the eastern side)

To be continued in “Torigoe Castle Part3”
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136.Torigoe Castle Part1

It’s history and role in the Kaga Ikko Uprising

Location and History

Emergence of Ikkoshu Sect

Torigoe Castle was located at the foot of the Hakusan Mountain in Kaga Province, which is now Hakusan City, Ishikawa Prefecture. It is known for the final place where the people of the lkkoshu Sect in the province, fought with the warlords to the last man in a conflict known as the Kaga Ikko uprising. After the Onin War in Kyoto in 1467, almost all the people in Japan had to protect themselves because the authority of the Ashikaga Shogunate had decreased in power. This is called the Sengoku Period, also known as the Warring States Period. Not only the lords and warriors, but also farmers and merchants along those at the temples had the power to maintain their territory and rights.

The location of the castle

A scene of the Onin War, from a picture scroll of the Origin of Shinnyo-do Temple (licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

The lkkoshu was one of the sects of Buddhism, which spread across the country during that period. Many people believed it because the sect says if you only speak “Hail to Amitabha Buddha”, you would go to heaven. In addition to this simple doctrine, the 8th head of the sect in the 15th Century, Rennyo worked actively to build local organizations especially in what is now the Chubu Region, including Kaga Province. The organizations were primarily religious, but they eventually had political, economic, and military power with the situation of the period. Even a warlord asked the sect for help when fighting another warlord. When the sect fought for something, it was called Ikko-Ikki, or the Ikko uprising, having a big impact on the entire country. As a result, the sect acted like a warlord and his warriors, with its headquarters, called Ishiyama-Honganji Temple, at the former Osaka Castle.

The portrait of Rennyo (licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

The miniature model of the Ishiyama-Honganji Temple, owned by Osaka Castle Museum (licensed by ブレイズマン via Wikimedia Commons)

Castle in Province owned by Peasants

Kaga Province had one of the strongest organizations in the sect. The people in the organization, called the Kaga Ikko uprising, first supported the governor of the province, from the Togashi Clan, but soon fought against and defeated the clan. This was due to the high taxes the clan imposed, but the local lords in the sect also wanted to take lands away from the clan. The sect established Oyama-gobo Temple, the former Kanazawa Castle, to govern the province by themselves. Kaga Province was known as “a province owned by peasants”. The temple was the home base of the Kaga Ikko uprising and probably looked like a castle. The Kaga Ikko uprising also had many branch castles, including Torigoe Castle, in the province to protect themselves.

Gokuraku-bashi Bridge in Kanazawa Castle, which derived its name from the period of Oyama-Gobo Temple

The restored Torigoe Castle in the present time

Torigoe Castle was the site of an internal group, called Yamanouchi-shu, in the Kaga Ikko uprising. The castle was built on a mountain above the meeting point of the Tedori-gawa and Dainichi-gawa Rivers. The castle had the Main Enclosure on the top. The other enclosures were around the Main Enclosure and along the ridge of the mountain. All the enclosures were made of soil and divided by the dry moats, using natural terrain. Such a castle could have been seen across Japan at that time as a “mountain castle”. It is thought that the head of the group, Suzuki Dewa-no-kami built the castle to protect them from Nobunaga Oda’s attacks.

The map around the castle

The relief map around the castle

Torigoe Castle was built using natural terrain

End of Kaga Ikko uprising

Nobunaga Oda was a great warlord who processed the unification of Japan in the 1570s-80s. He asked the religious institutions to waive their political and military power. If a temple rejected his request, he would destroy the temple completely, such as the fire attack on Mt. Hiei in 1571. Previously, in 1570, Nobunaga asked the Ikkoshu Sect to withdraw from its home base, Ishiyama-Honganji Temple. The sect refused, and after that, they fought each other for the next 11 years, known as the Battle of Ishiyama. Nobunaga’s retainers also attacked the local organizations of the Ikkoshu Sect, including the Kaga Ikko uprising. The Yamanouchi-shu group battled Nobunaga’s troops at Torigoe Castle even after Ishiyama-Honganji Temple surrendered in 1580. However, they were finally defeated, and with the rest of the survivors being killed in 1582. This could be considered as the final resistance of the Kaga Ikko uprising.

The portrait of Nobunaga Oda, attributed to Soshu Kano, owned by Chokoji Temple (licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

The image of Battle of Ishiyama, owned by Wakayama City Museum (licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

Torigoe Castle, the final place for the people of the Kaga Ikko uprising

To be continued in “Torigoe Castle Part2”

36.Maruoka Castle Part3

The Main Tower survived two crises.

Later History

After the Meiji Restoration, Maruoka Castle was abandoned. All the buildings of the castle including the Main Tower were sold. However, the tower was priced very low because it couldn’t be used for general offices or residences. It was impossible to scrap or move the tower for a low price. The buyer was not able to do anything to the tower, while the other buildings were moved or demolished. All of the water moats were also filled to create more land space in the city. The owners of the tower finally donated it to the officials in 1901. That’s why only the Main Tower remains now.

The miniature model of Maruoka Castle, all the buildings of the castle except for the Main Tower were sold and demolished.

In 1948, The Main Tower and its stone wall base collapsed due to the Fukui Earthquake. However, people in this area restored the tower in 1955 to almost the same condition as the original one. This was because they researched the details of the tower when it was repaired 8 years before the earthquake. They used about 70% of the original main materials to restore it. Such a method is usually used to repair other remaining castle buildings in Japan. That means the Main Tower of Maruoka Castle is valuable like it had been before the earthquake.

The stone grampuses which fell from the roof when the earthquake happened

My Impression

If you have time after visiting the inside of the Main Tower of Maruoka Castle, how about walking around the castle along the trace of the Inner Moat? The moat was turned into city area, but the outer edge of the moat remains as a road. If you walk along the road, you can look up a beautiful view of the Main Tower on the hill. I was honestly envious of the people who can see the view every day when I walked. In fact, Sakai City is considering restoring part of the Inner Moat and make a park inside it over the next 50 years to make the castle more attractive.

The Main Tower of Maruoka Castle seen from the road, former Inner Moat

The trace of the Inner Moat on the present road

Another photo from a different point on the road

How to get There

If you want to visit there by car:
It is about 10 minutes away from Maruoka IC on Hokuriku Expressway.
The castle park offers a parking lot.
By public transportation, take the bus bound for Eiheiji-eki-mae from JR Maruoka Station and get off at the Maruoka Bus Terminal bus stop. It takes about 5 minutes to get there on foot.
To get to Maruoka Station from Tokyo: Take the Hokuriku Shinkansen super express, transfer to the Hokuriku Line at Kanazawa Station.
From Osaka: Take the Thunderbird limited express and transfer to a local train on the Hokuriku Line at Fukui Station.

That’s all. Thank you.
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