Goryokaku – 日本200名城バイリンガル (Japan's top 200 castles and ruins)

124.Shinagawa Batteries Part3

The ruins of Shinagawa Batteries are very useful for telling people about what happened in the past. Visual historical items are significantly better than only records or explanation boards.

Features

Looking around N0.3 Battery Ruins

The ruins of the No.3 Battery as the Daiba Park is connected to the seaside by a marine walkway. The walkway was added when the park was established, that means the battery had originally been isolated. As you get close to the battery, you will see its characteristic stone walls using the Hanedashi system. The system refers to all the stones on the top row are layered to prevent enemies from invading, which emulated European castles. This system is rarely seen in other Japanese castles only in Goryokaku, Tatsuoka Castle and Hitoyoshi Castle which were built or renovated at the end of the Edo Period. In fact, this is the only spot where you can see them close by because it is prohibited for visitors to approach the stone walls from the other sides.

The aerial photo of the No.3 Battery

The Hanedashi system of the No.3 Battery

You can’t approach other stone walls of the battery in other places

You can land at the battery by using steps like boarding a ship. You can next see a close view of the battery. It is a large square with one side being 160m long and its perimeter is higher than the center. There are few remaining original items, so some visitors might not notice that it is a ruin without the knowledge of its history. If you walk on the perimeter which is made with earthen walls from the entrance, the view is so nice. You can see Odaiba Seaside Park on the left, the Rainbow Bridge and the No.6 Battery on the right, and Tokyo Bay ahead.

You can land the battery by using these steps

Walking on the earthen walls of the perimeter

The No.6 Battery on the left and the Rainbow Bridge on the right

Ruins regarding Guns

There are two imitations of gun platforms on one side of the perimeter opposite the entrance. However, they are not actually real and should not be considered even as replicas, according to historians. In addition, there were thick and long earthen protective walls called “breastworks” in front of cannons, but they seem to have collapsed. There were also earthen side walls dividing the canons to protect gunners from blasts, but were removed after the battery being abolished. This side was definitely the front line against enemies.

The protective walls around the guns have been lost

The ruins of the gun powder magazines are facing downward inside the front side walls, which are surrounded by earthen banks. There was the building for the magazine inside the banks, but it was demolished. There is now a stone-made item like a cocking stove instead, but it is not original for the battery. In addition, the banks are partially supported by stone walls which were built to recover them from the damage of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923.

These stone walls were built after the earthquake

The ruins of the ammunition chambers are at other sides. The chambers were solidly built with a stone hut and wooden racks deep in the earthen walls. This was because ammunition was the most dangerous item in the battery, which might have caused accidents or explosions. We can now see the stone hut ruins behind earthen mounds around which were added later than when the battery was active, maybe for preservation.

One of the ruins of the ammunition chambers

Ruins of Pier and Barrack

In the flat central part of the battery, there are only the stone foundations of the barrack. The barrack was a simple wooden building with no baths for the warriors to rest in. They would escape from the barrack if a battle happened before it would be burned.

The ruins of the pier are at the next corner to the current entrance. Visitors can not enter it, but only see it from the inside. The concreted part was worked in the later period, which might have been used when the park was developed.

There are also remaining earthen walls in front of the pier, which is called “Ichimonji-tsutsumi” (meaning the bank like the Chinese letter for one which is a horizontal line). This structure was made to ensure visitors could not see inside and the defenders could protect the battery from enemies’ attacks from the tier as the original entrance.

The remaining earthen walls called Ichimonji-tsutsumi

My Impression

I think the ruins of Shinagawa Batteries are very useful for telling people about what happened in the past. Visual historical items are significantly better than only records or explanation boards. The waterfront area of Tokyo has been very important for the economy of the whole country. All the batteries ruins could have been removed. The decision of Tokyo Metropolitan which owns the ruins was so great. Now, just one thing, I would like the government to replace the imitation of gun platforms at the site with realistic replicas to make visitors better understand what the battery would have looked like.

The two imitations of gun platforms on the No.3 Battery

That’s all. Thank you.
Back to “Shinagawa Batteries Part1”
Back to “Shinagawa Batteries Part2”

93.Hitoyoshi Castle Part2

The supply of the water from the Kumagawa River provides specialties such as hot spring, Kuma-shochu spirit, and sweet fish while the water could sometimes cause flood damages.

Features

Today, if you get close to the ruins of Hitoyoshi Castle, you will see a grand view of the Kumagawa River which collects water from mountain areas around, where you can also see students in canoes.

The supply of the water from the river provides specialties such as hot spring, Kuma-shochu spirit, and sweet fish while the water could sometimes cause flood damages. There was recently the Kumagawa River flood disaster in July, 2020 which actually caused serious damage to the castle ruins beside the river. The ruins have already resumed to be seen by visitors, but the Hitoyoshi Castle History Museum at the site is still closed as of September, 2023.

The closed Hitoyoshi Castle History Museum

Mysterious Water Bath of Basement

The museum is in the lowest area of the riverside which was used as the Main Gate, the domain’s facilities, and the senior vassals’ residences. Some turrets and walls surrounding the area have been restored. In fact, the museum is exactly on the same residence ruins of Seibe Sagawa who was banished during the Edo Period.

The aerial photo around the castle

The ruins of warriors’ residences at the riverside

The restored row-style turret beside the Main Gate

An interesting thing about the residence was that a water bath made of stones was found in the basement of the ruins. The water comes from the river and the bath is over 2m deep. There are no other similar cases in Japanese castles so far. Some speculate that it might have been used as a bathing place of a Jewish chapel because the specs were similar. There were secret Christians in the Hitoyoshi area though being Christians was prohibited during the Edo Period. Some of them might have believed Judaism.

The discovered water bath of the basement, quoted from the Hitoyoshi City website

Stone Walls with Hanedashi system surrounding Main Hall

The next area is the former Main Hall for the lord, called Mitachi, which is used as the Sagara-Gokoku Shrine. Some items for the hall remain, such as a pond garden, the stone entrance bridge over the moat, and stone walls surrounding it.

In particular, the stone walls facing the riverside use the Hanedashi system which refers to all the stones on the top row are layered to prevent enemies from invading. That’s why it is also called Musha-gaeshi or the Repelling Warriors system. The system is rarely seen in other Japanese castles only in Goryokaku, Shinagawa Batteries, and Tatsuoka Castle which were built at the end of the Edo Period.

The stone walls with the Hanedashi system of Hitoyoshi Castle

The stone walls with the Hanedashi system of Goryokaku

The stone walls with the Hanedashi system of Shinagawa Batteries

The stone walls with the Hanedashi system of Tatsuoka Castle

In front of the stone walls, the ruins of Mizunote-mon or the Water Gate are open to the Kumagawa River, which proves that the castle was involved in water transportation.

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

129.Tatsuoka Castle Part1

The second Goryokaku

Location and History

Matsudaira Clans are Shogun’s Relatives

Tatsuoka Castle was located in Shinao Province which is modern day Nagano Prefecture. It was built at the end of the Edo Period and it is one of the two Pentagonal Style Forts in Japan, with Goryokaku in Hokkaido. The builder of the castle was Norikata Matsudaira, who was the lord of the Tatsuoka Domain. In fact, there were so many Matsudaira Clans at that time, which were the relatives of the Tokugawa families in the shogunate. The family name “Tokugawa” was only allowed to be used with the few core family members who could be the Shogun. The other Tokugawa’s relatives used “Matsudaira” as their family name which had been their original before the first Shogun, Ieyasu started to use Tokugawa.

The photo of Norikata Matsudaira, in the Meiji Era (licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

The Matsudaira Clans can roughly be categorized into three groups. The first group is those which originated from Ieyasu or other Shogun’s children, such as the Echizen Matsudaira Clan at Fukui Castle and the Aizu Matsudaira Clan at Wakamatsu Castle. They were very reliable to the Shogunate, so they often had large territories and castles. The second group is those which had existed before Ieyasu was born, and are sometimes called the Eighteen Matsudaira Clans. In fact, Ieyasu came from one of them, called the Anjo Matsudaira Clan. They were also certainly Ieyasu’s relatives, but he trusted them less than the first group because they could be a competitor to him. As a result, they often had smaller territories which sometimes weren’t allowed to have their own castles because of the area criterion. The last group is those who didn’t have any blood relation with Ieyasu or other Shoguns, but were allowed to use Matsudaira for special reasons.

Norikata from Matsdaira Clans builds Castle

Norikata Matsudaira belonged to the Second group and his clan was also called the Ogyu Matsudaira Clan. Ogyu was the name of their original territory and has been used to identify them among many other Matsudaira Clans. In fact, the clan itself had several branch families because of its long history. Norikata was the lord of the Okutono Domain with an earning of only 16 thousand koku of rice, which meant he was not allowed to have a castle. In addition, his territory was divided into the smaller Okutono in Mikawa Province (now part of Aichi Pref.) and the larger Tatsuoka. His domain had been based in Okutono, so called the Okutono Domain, and the lords had lived in a hall, called the Okutono Camp.

The restored Okutono Camp (licensed by Bariston via Wikimedia Commons)

The situation changed after Japan opened the country to several Western countries in 1854. The shogunate relaxed the restrictions for the lords against the threats from these countries. Norikata was an excellent politician and he learned a lot about the Western items. He thought it was a good chance to do something using his knowledge to follow the government’s new policies. One of them was to move his home base to the larger Tatsuoka, and another was to build his own castle, called Tatsuoka Castle.

The location of the castle

Norikata’s attempts were allowed by the shogunate and the construction of the castle (officially it was still called a camp) started in 1864. The castle was designed to be a European style fort which had five bastions like a star. It came from Norikata’s ideas and was thought to be an effective way to protect it from enemies’ attacks from any directions. The five pointed star shape was all surrounded by advanced stone walls like the Tortoise Shell style and Hanedashi style (in which all the stones in the top row are so layered to prevent enemies from invading). It was expected that water moats were dug all around the castle and canons were placed inside all the bastions. There were the Main Hall for the lord and a parade ground inside. The castle was finally completed in 1866, following the first Pentagonal Style Fort known as Goryokaku in Hokkaido, which was completed back in 1864. Norikata was very pleased to see it, inviting local people to show it, then his domain would be re-considered the Tatsuoka Domain.

The ground plan of Tatsuoka Castle, from the signboard at the site

Castle for Experiment

However, in fact, there were some disadvantages for the castle. First, Tatsuoka Castle was much smaller than Goryokaku. It was about 150m long, about half of Goryokaku at about 300m, so in terms of size, it was about one forth the size. The stone walls were 3.5m high and the moats were about 10m wide at most, which would be insufficient even in the Sengoku Period. The moats actually covered two thirds of the perimeter and only one bastion had a cannon. Moreover, the castle could be easily targeted by a cannon from a mountain, at about 500m away from it. What did the facts mean for the castle? Norikata probably meant the castle to not be used for a battle, but for authority of his government and an experiment of new technologies instead. The life of the castle only lasted a few years because of the Meiji Restoration.

The water moats of this castle is not so wide

The relief map around the castle

To be continued in “Tatsuoka Castle Part2”