192.Tsunomure Castle Part3

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.

Features

Is Main Enclosure being improved?

However, the Main Enclosure on the top looks different. Around the Main Enclosure there are no stone walls, but it has the Vertical Cliffs which were artificially cut, made of soil. This method had also been used in the castle before Takamasa Mori came. You will walk around the natural-like path to the enclosure (the straight path for the repair work to it should not be used).

The map around the castle

The Vertical Cliffs around the Main Enclosure
The straight path for the repair work to the Main Enclosure
The path to the Main Enclosure going around the mountain

There is the observation platform on the way, where you can enjoy a great view of the Kusu area with lots of mesas or buttes, which look very beautiful.

The observation platform
The wonderful view of Kusu area

When you arrive at the top of the Main Enclosure, you will see many stones lying on it (as of May of 2023). This is because Takamasa built stone walls only at northern side of the enclosure. The official are repairing them after they collapsed. Maybe Takamasa was also improving the Main Enclosure until he was transferred.

The entrance of the Main Enclosure
The inside of the enclosure
The stones for the stone walls being repaired

Attractions of Mori Domain

You can also visit the attractions of the Mori Domain which the Kurushima Clan established at the foot of the mountain. The lords of the domain lived in an encampment which was turned into a park. The clan also built a pond garden with a circular promenade beside a hill next to the encampment, which remains now.

The pond garden the Kurushima Clan created

There is a 7m tall monolith standing in front of the garden, called Dowa-hi or the Monument of Fairy Tales. This was not originally part of the encampment, but it was originally used as a stone for the harbor at a river nearby when the domain was thriving. The monolith was moved to the current position and reused as the monument in 1949, named after a famous writer of fairy tales, Takehiko Kurushima who was a descendant of the lord’s family.

The monument in front of the garden

The clan also built a tea room on stone walls, called Seihoro, on the hill, which also remains. It is said that the room was built as a substitute for a Main Tower which was not allowed to be built by the lord of the clan.

The Seihoro tea room (licensed by ムカイ via Wikimedia Commons)

Later History

The research of Tsunomure Castle was launched in 1993. It found that the ruins still have an example of the Ano-zumi stone walls in a good condition, which Hideyoshi’s retainers built in many areas during his unification of Japan. It also found that the ruins show the process of castles’ improvement from the Middle Ages to the Edo Period. As a result, the ruins were designated as a National Historic Site in 2005. Kusu Town promoted itself as the hometown of fairy tales and having a castle with the Ano-zumi stone walls.

The Ano-zumi stone walls of Tsunomure Castle

My Impression

When I visited the Kusu Area, I felt the area has a very unique atmosphere because it is surrounded by mountains, and the small mountains or hills inside are a little strange, which I would learn are called mesas or buttes. These natural features of the area created folk tales about its history, so the town’s nick name, the hometown of fairy tales may be related to them. Tsunomure Castle also came from the area’s features and people from the outside made it more unique. I recommend visiting the Kusu area and Tsunomure Castle Ruins if you travel around there.

The stone walls of the Third Enclosure of Tsunomure Castle

How to get There

If you want to visit there by car, it is about a few minutes drive away from Kusu IC on the Oita Expressway. There are several parking lots around the ruins (in the Third Enclosure on the mountain or in the park at the foot of the mountain…).
By public transportation, take the Oita-Kotsu bus bound for Kajiwara from JR Bungomori Station and get off at the Kami-Fushihara bus stop at the foot of the mountain. You can climb the trail to the top from there.
From Tokyo or Osaka to the Station: it may be better to rent a car from Oita Airport or Fukuoka Airport after using a plane.

That’s all. Thank you.
Back to “Tsunomure Castle Part1”
Back to “Tsunomure Castle Part2”

192.Tsunomure Castle Part1

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.

Location and History

One of Castles in Kusu area, important place in traffic

Tsunomure Castle was located in the Mori area of Kusu District, Bungo Province, which is the modern day Mori area of Kusu Town, Oita Prefecture. Kusu District and Kusu Town have been on the way between the eastern and western Northern Kyushu Region. For example, if you want to move from Oita City to Fukuoka or Saga Cities, you will pass Kusu Town either using car or public transportation. In addition, the district bordered on Buzen Province in the north, so the governor of Bungo Province, the Otomo Clan, which long owned the province during the Middle Ages, always focused on Kusu District to protect its territory.

The range of Bungo Province and the location of the castle

The Kusu area also has the interesting natural feature of many mesas or buttes which originate from volcanic activity. They look like mountains or hills with steep slopes but have a plain area on the top, created by erosion. Kirikkabu (or Stump) Mountain in the area is typical among them. Local lords in the area built their own castles using these mesas or buttes during the Middle Ages. Tsunomure Castle was one of the castles, built on the Tsunomure Mountain by a local lord, the Mori Clan. Part of the name “mure” can be found in other mountains in the Kyushu Region, such as Togamure in Saiki City, Oita Prefecture. The word might derive from “mura” (or village) or “mori” (or forest), which indicates that the mountain and castle might have been used with local peoples’ daily life. They could cut down trees from the mountain for fuel and materials, or escape from their village to the castle when a battle happened.

The Stump Mountain (licensed by そらみみ via Wikimedia Commons)

Broadly speaking, the history of Tsunomure Castle can be divided into three periods. The first one was from the castle’s foundation to the end of the Otomo Clan’s rule at the end of the 16th Century. The clan’s government continued stably and the Kusu area was divided by many local lords which had their own castles made from mesas or buttes. The Otomo Clan didn’t rule their lands directly, so as long as they paid taxes to and served the clan, they were able to maintain their properties. Tsunomure Castle, governed by the Mori Clan, was built made of soil, by processing natural terrain into tier-wise enclosures, ditches, vertical cliffs, vertical moats, and so on. The mountain, where the castle was built, had been protective enough, which was surrounded by natural steep cliffs in all the directions except for the south. That’s why the defenders would gather the defensive items in the one direction. The castle actually became the only one which the Simazu Clan couldn’t capture when they invaded the Otomo Clan’s territory in 1586, therefore it was considered impregnable.

The diorama of Tsunomure Castle Ruins, exhibited by Bungo-Mori Domain Museum

The relief map arond the castle

Takamasa Mori modernizes Castle

The second period started from 1593 when the Otomo Clan was fired by Hideyoshi Toyotomi, the ruler of Japan. After that, Hideyoshi sent his retainers to the former Otomo’s territory to govern it directly. The Kusu area was assigned by Hideyoshi to Takamasa Mori (different from the previous Mori Clan and in Chinese letters for writing). Takamasa lived in and improved Tsunomure Castle by building high stone walls, defensive entrances called Koguchi, and buildings with roof tiles and stone foundations. These items are also seen in other local castles in Japan where Hideyoshi’s other retainers built or improved them, making the castles more defensive as well as showing their authority to people. In particular, the high stone walls of Tsunomure Castle in front of its Main Gate were piled in an advanced way called Ano-zumi, using natural stones and rubble. Takamasa’s government ended in a few years before he was transferred to the Saiki area, where he would build Saiki Castle, by the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1601. This may be the reason why the improvement to Tsunomure Castle was only partially done.

The wooden statue of Takamasa Mori, from the signboard at Saiki City Historical Museum
The high stone walls of Tsunomure Castle, built in the Ano-zumi way
The ruins of Saiki Castle

Lord of Navy becomes that of Inland Domain

Nagachika Kurushima came to Tsunomure Castle in the same year instead of Takamasa. However, the Kurushima Clan must have felt uncomfortable moving to this inland area. This was because they had originally been one of the Murakami Navies which flourished in the Geiyo Islands of the Seto Inland Sea. The clan was located in Kurushima Island in front of the Kurushima Strait which is known as a rapid stream. They escorted ships which paid protection money, otherwise, they became pirates. They also join battles sometimes as a navy and one of the backed-up persons was the ruler Hideyoshi, which resulted in their sea territory being maintained. Nagachika was the lord of the clan at that time, who joined the West Alliance which was beaten in the decisive battle in 1600 by the East Squad (alliance) led by Ieyasu Tokugawa who would be the founder of the shogunate. That was the reason for his transportation to the strange place, however, he may be lucky as many other lords joining the West Squad were killed or fired by the shogunate.

The portrait of Nagachika Kurushima, owned by Anrakuji Temple (licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)
The Kurushima Strait

His new territory was part of the Kusu District, called Mori, so the territory would be called the Mori Domain. It earned 14,000 koku of rice, which was considered as an independent lord, but was too small to have a castle. Therefore, he had to abandon Tsunomure Castle on the mountain and lived in the encampment at its southern foot instead. However, his clan managed to own and maintain the mountain part with no buildings but the former castle’s foundations, probably for cases of emergency like a battle. The clan also developed the castle town around the encampment and governed the domain until the end of the Edo Period.

The ruins of Kurushima Clan’s encampment
The ruins of Samurai residences in the castle town

To be continued in “Tsunomure Castle Part2”