水戸城は、現在は茨城県の県庁所在地となっている水戸市にありました。この城は将軍家に次ぐ徳川御三家の一つ、水戸徳川家の本拠地となっていました。しかしこの城は、他の御三家や将軍の本拠地とは随分と違った外観をしていました。
There are many stones lying on the Main Enclosure. This is because officials are repairing the stone walls of the enclosure, which Takamasa Mori built.
The path to the top becomes zigzagging and the highlight of the castle, the great Ano-zumi high stone walls appear soon.
Local lords in Kusu area built their own castles using mesas or buttes which were the area’s natural features. Tsunomure Castle was one of these castles.
Nakatsu City planned to replace old stones with new ones to re-pile the walls because it didn’t think the stones were original. The construction was just on the point of starting.
Basically, newer stone walls use more processed stones. However, in the case of those in Nakatsu Castle, it looks like it is the other way around.
Yoshitaka Kuroda, who built Nakatsu Castle, is known to many Japanese people as the military strategist of Hideyoshi Toyotomi. However, he was actually a working general and a secretary under Hideyoshi.
中津城を築いた黒田孝高（官兵衛、如水）には豊臣秀吉の軍師であったという印象があるでしょう。しかし実際には秀吉の下、現場で働く武将で、かつ秀吉の秘書官のような存在であったようです。