main enclosure – ページ 20 – 日本200名城バイリンガル (Japan's top 200 castles and ruins)

128.Yogaiyama Castle Part2

The spot for hikers and history fans

Features

Castle Ruins on Hiking course

Today, the ruins of Yogaiyama Castle are on a hiking course as well as a historical site in Kofu City. The top of the ruins on the mountain is about 250m above the starting point of the trail at the foot. Therefore, you need to prepare for a long hike or a grueling climb to visit the ruins, which takes over 30 minutes to reach the top. The first half of your tour will be a pure hike by climbing a natural zigzagging trail. You may see some stone walls along the route, but they were probably built after the castle period.

Were these stone walls built after the castle period?

You will eventually find some signposts of Vertical Moat or Earthen Walls, which are around the entrance of the castle ruins. These actual ruins are partially covered with bushes, so you may not notice them without the signposts.

These ruins are partially covered with bushes

Original Gate Ruins along Trail

You will also find other ruins such as gates along the trail, however, the trail is not always on the original one. According to previous researches, the castle had 8 gates to reach the Main Enclosure on the top. As long as I checked, there are actually only 4 gate ruins with signposts along the current trail, which still look very defensive. I think they should be the original gates of No.2, No.3, No.6 and No.8.

The map around the castle

On the other hand, there are also other entrances of enclosures, which look like gate ruins without signposts. They are set straight in front of the enclosures, which mean not defensive, so may not be original and built later for hikers. If so, some original gate ruins (probably No.4, No.5 and No.7) are not on the current route probably because they are inconvenient for hikers.

In addition, the No.1 gate ruins seem to be on the route, but without a signpost, which I didn’t notice.

I think this is around the N0.1 Gate Ruins as some stone walls remain

Who built Masugata System of this Castle?

Out of the 4 original gate ruins with signposts, No.2 (with the first signpost of Gate Ruins) and No.3 (with the second one) are so great. They are surrounded by stone walls, forming a square space, called Masugata. The trail also turns right to exit the gate, plus, other enclosures are in the back of the gate and ahead of the route. That meant the defenders would counterattack the front and side of the enemies in the Masugata.

The No.2 Gate Ruins, the trail turns right

The No.3 Gate Ruins, similar to the No.2 Gate Ruins

This structure is seen in other castles using high stone walls, which would be built much later than Yogaiyama Castle. However, it is not uncertain who built or improved this system. If the Takeda Clan built it, it would be very advanced, if Mitsuyasu Kato improved it, he would have applied it from other castles like Kofu Castle to Yogaiyama Castle.

The restored Yamanote-mon Gate of Kofu Castle which has the Masugata system

The miniature model of the Yamanote-mon Gate, exhibited in the Inari Turret of Kofu Castle

Main Enclosure, Largest one in Castle

The No.8 Gate Ruins are the entrance of the Main Enclosure. It is the largest enclosure in the castle on the top of the mountain, surrounded by thick earthen walls. There is only the stone monument for the birthplace of Shingen Takeda in it. There should be a good view point of Kofu city area, but unfortunately trees shut out the view.

The No.8 Gate Rums, the entrance of the Main Enclosure

The earthen walls surrounding the enclosure

The stone monument for the birthplace of Shingen Takeda

Unfortunately, this is not a good view point

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

152.Tsu Castle Part3

You can see part of the castle ruins even in the city area.

Features

Northern side

This side is the most likely to show what the castle looked like because the high stone walls and the Inner Moat remain well. However, the original moat was over twice as wide as the current one.

The aerial photo around the castle

This road seemed to be part of the Inner Moat

Two three-story turrets were built on both edges of the walls in the past, in addition, Tamon-yagura Turret, like a long row house, was also built between them. These structures must have looked great and been a threat to enemies.

The old photo of the two turrets on the stone walls in the past, from the signboard at the site

The stone walls which had the long row house on them in the past

The stone wall base for the Northeast Turret, one of the two turrets

The stone wall base for the Northwest Turret, the other of the two turrets

You can also go and walk on the top of the walls from the inside of the Main Enclosure. There is enough space to walk and rest as it was the ground for those buildings. You can look down the walls and moat and see how tall and large they are.

The Inner Moat seen from the Northwest Turret Ruins

Overlooking the stone walls and the Inner Moat

Later History

After the Meiji Restoration, Tsu Castle was abandoned. The moats were eventually filled and the castle buildings were demolished accordingly. Tsu City became the capital of Mie Prefecture in the first Meiji Era, so the former castle plain land was a likely place to meet the demand of office buildings. The city finally bought some castle ruins area and opened it as a park in 1958. The city is now checking the condition of the remaining stone walls to prevent them from collapsing as they are aging and being damaged by tree roots. They will consider how to preserve and develop them as a historic site.

My Impression

We usually can not see any trace of the castle in the current city area of Tsu. However, when an excavation was done in the former castle area, some castle items were found. Examples of them can be seen in the spot beside a bank head quarters building, over 100m away from the park entrance. There is an exhibition for stone walls at the edge of the Inner Moat, which were excavated nearby. You can really understand the moat was 80 to 100m wide in the past, seeing it. I think this is another way to enjoy visiting castles.

The excavated stone walls of the Inner Moat which are exhibited beside the bank

How to get There

If you want to visit the castle by car, it is about 10 minutes away from Tsu IC on the Ise Expressway. There is a parking lot in front of the main entrance of the park.
By public transportation, it takes about 10 minutes on foot from Tsu-Shinmachi Station.
To get to Tsu-Shinmachi Station from Tokyo: Take the Tokaido Shinkansen super express, transfer to a limited express on the Kintetsu-Nagoya Line at Nagoya Station and transfer to a local train at Tsu Station.

The parking lot in front of the main entrance of the park

That’s all. Thank you.
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152.Tsu Castle Part2

The castle has become an urban park.

Features

Castle Ruins mainly including Main Enclosure

Today, the ruins of Tsu Castle have been developed as a Castle Park. However, the range of them is limited just including the Main Enclosure, the Western Enclosure as one of the Barbicans, and part of the Inner Moat. The center of the park is like an urban one, not like a historical one, so I will describe the outer block of the park, which still has castle-like items, from one side to the other.

The aerial photo around the castle

Eastern Side

This side was the eastern edge of the Main enclosure, which has the main entrance to the park and an imitation three-story turret built in the present time. It was also one of the original entrances.

The imitation turret beside the entrance

The Inner Moat on this side was filled in, used as roads, a parking lot, another park, and a city area. The road directly leading to the entrance may have been traced from a path of the Eastern Enclosure, the other barbican.

The east of the park has become the road

The stone walls of this side remain, but the upper part collapsed, and the lower part is mortared to prevent it from collapsing.

Southern side

This side has stone walls as well, but their condition is better than those of the eastern side. If you look at the stone walls carefully, you will find the joint of the left and right parts. That means the edge of the left part was the corner of the older Main Enclosure when the castle was called Anotsu Castle. The right part was added by Takatora. This also means the left part is older.

There is the joint of the older part on the left and the newer part on the right

This side has a small entrance between the stone walls, called Uzume-mon or the Small Back Gate. It had been an entrance to the outside of Anotsu Castle. In Takatora’s period, the Inner Moat was in front of it.

The Small Back Gate seen from the inside, the stone wall base for the Small Main Tower on the right

There is also the stone wall base for the Main Tower at the southwestern corner. The base has two tiers, the upper one for the large Main Tower and the lower one for the small Main Tower. The towers were burned down in the Battle of Anotsu Castle in 1600, and Takatora didn’t rebuild them.

The stone wall base for the Main Tower (the front for the Large Main Tower and the back for the Small Main Tower)

The stone wall base for the Large Main Tower seen from the inside

Western side

This side has the Western Enclosure which is the only remaining Barbican beside the Main Enclosure. You can experience how to enter the Main Enclosure in the past. You can first walk across the earthen bridge over the partly remaining Inner Moat from the south. This bridge was originally made of wood.

The earthen bridge going the Western Enclosure

The Western Enclosure seen from outside the Inner Moat

The entrance of the Western Enclosure is surrounded by altered stone walls, which still looks like the original. You will next turn right and go to the Main Enclosure through a gate called Nyutoku-mon. This gate was originally built for the Tsu Domain school located elsewhere and has been relocated to the present location. The area between the Western and Main Enclosures are connected by a spacy Japanese garden. However, they were originally connected by a thin route, which were strongly protected.

There was another entrance of the Main Enclosure before the Japanese garden

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