earthen wall – ページ 2 – 日本200名城バイリンガル (Japan's top 200 castles and ruins)

96.Obi Castle Part2

A perfect harmony of artifacts and nature

Features

Main Gate, Face of Castle

Today, many tourists visit the Obi Castle ruins and the former castle town. Because of the nature of the Shirasu plateau, the enclosures of the castle were naturally made independently. Many of them were turned into a shrine, schools, playgrounds, and residential areas. The remaining enclosures, which were the main portion of the castle, are open to visitors.

The aerial photo around the castle

Tanoue Hachiman Shrine, the former Hachiman Shrine

A playground which was around the Middle Castle

Obi Second Primary School was the enclosures which were collectively called the Second Enclosure

Visitors usually first walk on the Main Route to the restored Main Gate on the original stone walls, which is a popular image for the ruins. In fact, the details of the original gate were unclear, but people restored it using a traditional method and Obi Cedar wooden materials. That’s why the gate matches the original items as if it is also original. The inside of the gate is a square defensible space surrounded by great stone walls, called Masugata, which builds up the gate’s character.

The Masugata system inside the Main Gate

The Masugata system of the Main Gate seen from the top of the earthen walls of the Third Enclosure

Third Enclosure, protected by Earthen walls and Dry moats

The Main Gate is the entrance of the very large third enclosure which is surrounded by earthen walls and dry moats except for the gate. If you enter the gate and go to the inside of the enclosure, you will see the 4m high earthen walls which are the older part of the castle. According to the signboard at the site, the walls were originally about 16m high, from the bottom of the dry moat in front of them.

The earthen walls of the Third Enclosure, seen from its inside

The dry moat of the Third Enclosure, seen from its outside (in front of the Main Gate)

Main Enclosure, surrounded by Stone walls

There are high and long mud walls on top of stone walls opposite the earthen walls, which surround the main enclosure. The enclosure also has long and wide stone steps and another Masugata system. Many tall Obi Cedar trees planted around make them look more majestic. Overall, you will understand that the castle was built by combining the older earthen walls and newer stone walls over time.

The stone walls surrounding the Main Enclosure

The Obi Cedar trees around look majestic

The Main Enclosure includes the Obi Castle Historical Museum where you can learn the history of the castle, and Obi Primary School, which visitors can not enter. The Matsuo-no-maru Enclosure is next to and little above the Main Enclosure, which has a rebuilt traditional hall. The hall was not original for the castle, but was built using designs of other remaining halls including a traditional Japanese steam bath.

The Obi Castle Historical Museum (licensed by Kthrk25 via Wikimedia Commons)

Former Main Enclosure, with wonderful Obi Cedar trees

The former Main Enclosure is at the highest spot in the castle. You can walk up long stone steps and will see it is also surrounded by great stone walls and has another Masugata system. This enclosure had once been destroyed by the earthquakes in the early Edo Period, but the Obi Domain seem to have rebuilt this enclosure firmly. However, since then, the inside of it has been having no buildings as the Main Hall for the lord was moved from it to the new Main Enclosure.

The Masugata system of the former Main Enclosure

Instead, there are plenty of Obi Cedar trees growing on the ground with a moss-like carpet, which looks amazing! If they started to be planted when the enclosure was rebuilt, they may be nearly 350 year old.

The Obi Cedar trees in the former Main Enclosure

The enclosure also has the restored back gate where you can go out from to visit other attractions of the castle.

You can go out of the back gate to the Second Enclosure area

To be continued in “Obi Castle Part3”
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57.Sasayama Castle Part3

This castle was built practically.

Features

Looking up to Stone Walls from Third Enclosure

The flat square Third Enclosure is outside of the Inner Moat and inside of the Outer Moat. If you walk around it, you will see the great stone walls of the main portion. In particular, the stone wall base for the Main Tower looks so nice, which is about 18m high, built using natural and rough processed stones, instructed by Ano-shu Group, a special stone guild at that time.

The map around the castle

The high stone walls of the main portion seen from the Third Enclosure

The outside view of the stone wall base for the Main Tower

Two individual Umadashi systems

You can also visit the two other entrance ruins of the Eastern and Southern Gates through the enclosure. It is unfortunate that both ruins have lost their Masugata systems, however, their Umadashi systems are still intact. The system for the Eastern Gate remains as a square park, over the narrow straight path among the Inner Moat. It is surrounded by stone walls and another moat in the front and the sides, so you can easily imagine how the system worked in the past.

The system became the Eastern Umadashi Park

The other one for the Southern Gate also has a square space and is surrounded by earthen walls, not by stone walls. This is actually the only remaining example of the Umadashi system build only using earthen walls.

Going to the southern Umadashi system through a narrow path

The earthen walls of the Umadashi system form the square space

If you have time, I recommend walking along the street of Okachimachi warriors’ residences with several remaining their houses which are open to the public, in the west of the castle ruins.

“The Anma Clan’s samurai residence historical museum” is one of the open warriors’ houses

My Impression

I think Sasayama Castle was quite practical for its purpose of construction. That’s why its Main Tower was actually not built. This castle was not so large as other major castles like Osaka, Nagoya and Himeji Castles, but was designed to be able to protect itself by few defenders. My first impression for the castle was that it could be a supply base. I imagine Sasayama Castle could have worked flexibly either when the Tokugawa Shogunate side would be offense or defense.

I think this Third Enclosure was able to accommodate some amount of soldiers and supplies

How to get There

If you want to visit there by car, it is about 10 minutes from Tannan-Sasayamaguchi IC on the Maizuru-Wakasa Expressway. There are several parking lots in and around the castle ruins.
By public transportation, you can take the Sinki Green bus bound for Sasayama-eigyosho from JR Sasayamaguchi Station and get off at the Nikaimachi bus stop. It takes about 5 minutes on foot to get there.
From Tokyo to Sasayamaguchi Station: Take the Tokaido Shinkansen super express, transfer to the Kyoto Line at Shin-Osaka Station and transfer to the Takarazuka Line at Osaka Station.

The parking lot in front of the Main Gate Ruins

That’s all. Thank you.
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197.Shibushi Castle part3

Wonderful molding using natural terrain

Features

Nakanokuo, Pivot of Defense

Over the dry moat, the other major enclosures of Nakanokuo (the enclosure No.4 & 5) and Onokuo (the enclosure No.6 & 15) follow and are all divided by other dry moats crosswise. In particular, you should check out Nakanokuo (the enclosure No.5), over Nakanokuo (the enclosure No.4). To reach the enclosure, you need to go out of the Main Enclosure, go through the right lengthwise dry moat from the front, and enter the second crosswise dry moat. The bottom of the moat is not flat, but has two tiers, so you also need to climb to the upper tier.

The map around Uchijo portion, the red broken line is the route from the Main Enclosure to Nakaokuo (the enclosure No.5)

The second crosswise dry moat has two tiers

Then, you will face huge vertically cut cliff of the enclosure like a thick column and need to walk around to enter. If you were an enemy, you must have been attacked by the defenders from above until then. The entrance path is altered by thick earthen walls as well, just like a palace gate made of soil. This enclosure might have been pivotal to the defense in the castle.

The vertical cliff of Nakanokuo (the enclosure No.5) ‘s side

The earthen walls surrounding the enclosure

Looking down the bottom of the moat from the enclosure

The part of Nakaokuo (the enclosure No.5) of the miniature model exhibited in *Shibushi City Center for Archaeological operations*

Amazing Dry Moats

Both the lengthwise dry moats outside the plateau are amazing. The dry moat on the left side from the front (the western side) is called O-Horikiri or the Large Ditch. It is about 17m deep and was about 7m deeper than now according to the excavation. The collapsing volcanic ash has been filling the bottom of the moat naturally. However, it is still enough for us to understand how great the warrior’s work for the moat was.

The part of the Large Ditch of the miniature model

The dry moat on the right side is also surprising. The cut section of the outside enclosure is still vivid making us understand how hard their work was!

The Back Route of the castle goes beside the cut section and very narrow like the Main Route. It must have been made very defensive like the Main Route.

The part of the Back Route of the miniature model

Later History

After Shibushi Castle was abandoned, the foot of the mountain was used as the warriors’ residences called Shibushi Fumoto. Fumoto refers to a residence area for a unique defense system of the Satsuma Domain led by the Shimazu Clan, called Tojo or the Outer Castles, during the Edo Period. Unlike other domains letting their retainers live together in their home base, the Satsuma Domain sent many of its retainers to their local sites to protect the frontiers of its territory. Shibushi Fumoto was one of the most important among over 100 Fumoto of the domain. You can also walk around the Fumoto area at the same time as visiting Shibushi Castle Ruins. As for the castle ruins, they have been excavated and researched since 2003. As a result, they were designated as a National Historic Site in 2005.

The area around still has an atmosphere of Shibushi Fumoto

My Impression

I have never seen such a large and precise miniature model of a mountain castle like the one of Shibushi Castle (Uchijo portion) in Shibushi City Center for Archaeological operations before. I have certainly seen large and precise miniature models of more modern castles like Himeji Castle because they often had or still have many buildings such as the Main Tower, turrets and gates, and great structures such as stone walls. They would be easy to be copied for a model and the model can be popular with people. On the other hand, making models of a mountain castle should be difficult and may be less popular, so it could be rare, especially realistic ones. However, the miniature model of Shubushi Castle is one of the rarely seen models, worth to see by itself, and helps visitors understand what the real castle was very well.

*The miniature model of Uchijo, exhibited by Shibushi City Center for Archaeological operations*

How to get There

If you want to visit the castle ruins by car, it is about a 15 minute drive away from Shibushi IC on the Miyakonojo-Shibushi Road. There is a parking lot for visitors near the ruins. In addition, Shibushi City Center for Archaeological operations is about 3km away from the ruins and it also has a parking lot.
If you want to use public transportation, it takes about 20 minutes on foot to get there form JR Shibushi Station.
For visitors from Tokyo or Osaka: It may be a good idea to rent a car at Kagoshima or Miyazaki Airports after using a plane.

That’s all. Thank you.
Back to “Shibushi Castle Part1”
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