natural terrain – ページ 4 – 日本200名城バイリンガル (Japan's top 200 castles and ruins)

59.Himeji Castle Part4

Castles are trying to survive into the future.

Features (West Enclosure)

The West Enclosure is located on Sagiyama mountain, the southwest of the Main Towers. It was lastly improved by Tadamasa Honda, when he was married to Senhime, the daughter of Ieyasu Tokugawa, the founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate. The enclosure has large space and the Roofed Passage Turret where you can enter. You can also see equipment for battles such as machicolations as well as rooms for women who might have served Senhime. The view of the Main Towers from this enclosure looks very elegant.

The map around the castle

The Roofed Passage Turret on the West Enclosure

The Main Tower can be seen from the West Enclosure

My Impression

I think Himeji Castle looks much better with surrounded by natural terrain. For example, the Main Tower buildings are beautiful by themselves, but the buildings could be more beautiful with the mountain and the natural materials from which the towers were originally built.

The picture of only the Main Tower building

A beautiful scenery of the combination of the Main Tower and nature materials

In addition, when I visited the castle in 2013, I had a unique experience. The castle was undergoing repairs under The Heisei Great Repairs. The Large Main Tower was hidden behind construction covering. However, visitors could enter the construction site to see the tower close-up. I saw the roof top of the tower being painted with thick plaster among the roof tiles. The thickness of the plaster at the castle is 3cm, which is thicker than the past. This is to protect against the harsh weather. Even now, castles are trying to survive into the future.

The construction covering of the Heisei Great Repairs

The roof top of the tower that can be seen close-up

How to get There

If you want to visit by car: It takes about 15 minutes from the Hanada IC or Tohori Ramp on the Bantan renraku Road. The are several parking lots around the castle.
From Himeji Station: Take the Himeji Castle Loop Bus from the Himeji-ekimae stop in front of the north exit of the station and get off at the Himeji-jo Otemon-mae stop. Or it takes about 20 minutes on foot from the station.

Links and References

・Himeji Castle Official Website

That’s all.
Back to “Himeji Castle Part1”
Back to “Himeji Castle Part3”

39.Gifu Castle Part1

The castle for Nobunaga Oda to unify the nation by force

Location and History

Castle protected by Mt. Kinkazan and Nagara-gawa River

If you go from Nagoya City to Gifu City, the prefectural capital of Gifu Pref. through the Nobi Plain, the first high mountain you will see is Mt. Kinkazan with the Main Tower on the top. This is Gifu Castle. It may have been very common for warriors to build their castle on such an outstanding spot. The Nagara-gawa River also flows on the north and west of the castle as a part of the natural terrain and served as a defense mechanism for the castle.

The location of the castle

*Mt. Kinkazan (licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)*

Nobunaga Oda declares Unify Nation by Force

It is said that the Nikaido Clan first built the castle in the 13th Century, but the details are uncertain. In the mid 16th Century, the Saito Clan improved the castle which until then, was called Inabayama Castle. In 1567, Nobunaga Oda took over the castle from the Saito Clan, and moved his home base from Komakiyama Castle to this castle. At the same time, he renamed the castle Gifu Castle, which comes from the hometown’s name of an ancient Chinese Dynasty, Shou. He also started using his seal of “Tenka-Fubu” or Unify the Nation by Force for his documents. This was seen as Nobunaga’s declaration of his intention for the unification of Japan.

The portrait of Nobunaga Oda, attributed to Soshu Kano, owned by Chokoji Temple, in the late 16th century (licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

The *seal of Unify the Nation by Force (licensed by 百楽兎 via Wikimedia Commons)*

However, even according to the excavations, it is still not entirely sure what the top of the mountain looked like and if there was a Main Tower or not. Some gates and stone walls were built, but the natural terrain on the mountain was not modified so much. Some historians speculate this is because the mountain was originally a sanctuary spot where its rocky terrain itself could be the object of worship. There was actually an Inaba Shrine on the mountain before the Saito Clan improved the castle. Nobunaga lived on the top of the mountain with his family and relatives, and usually didn’t allow other people to climb on the mountain.

The miniature model of the top of Mt. Kinkazan (Gifu Castle Museum)

Featured Nobunaga’s Palace Residence

On the other hand, at the western foot of the mountain called Keyakitdani, Nobunaga’s residence, which was like a luxurious palace, was built. The residence had four stories covering the terraced terrain with golden foiled roof tiles. The foundation of the residence was built with stone walls, in particular, and its entrance was decorated by huge stone walls. The back of the residence had deluxe artificial gardens also with huge stones. The way of building the castle is said to have led to the next way for building the Azuchi Castle later.

The imaginary drawing of Nobunaga’s residence *(Gifu Castle Museum)*

After Nobunaga died, his relatives continued to govern the castle. In 1600, when Hidenobu Oda, Nobunaga’s grandchild was the lord of the castle, the battle of Sekigahara happened. Hidenobu supported the Western Army led by Mitsunari Ishida, while the Eastern Army under the Tokugawa Shogunate attacked Gifu Castle. Hidenobu was defeated and it is said that the buildings Nobunaga built were burned down during the battle.

The portrait of Hidenobu Oda, owned by Raikoji Temple (licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

To be continued in “Gifu Castle Part2”

40.Yamanaka Castle Part1

The castle for the western defense of the Hojo Clan

Location and History

Western Defense for Hojo Clan

Yamanaka Castle was located on the west of Hakone Barrier, the western gateway of Kanto Region, now in the eastern part of Shizuoka Prefecture. The castle was first built in the middle 16th Century during the Sengoku Period by the Hojo Clan, who owned Kanto Region. The clan aimed to protect their home base, Odawara Castle on the eastern side of Hakone Barrier, by building Yamanaka Castle. This castle was also improved before the ruler, Hideyoshi Toyotomi, attacked the Hojo Clan in 1590.

The location of the castle

Yamanaka Castle was built surrounding the Tokaido Road, one of the major roads in Japan. During that time, if someone walked up the slope on the road from the west, it would require passing through the castle. The road was actually on the Third Enclosures of the castle, and beside the Main Enclosure. The Third Enclosure also had water moats on the west to prevent enemies’ attacks and was for the water reservoir.
On the south of the Third Enclosure, a long defense strongpoint called “Taizaki-demaru” spread with the road parallelly. On the west of the Third Enclosure, the Second Enclosure, the West Enclosure, and the West Turret were added towards that direction. These enclosures were able to work closely to prevent attacks from enemy forces.

The location map of the ruins of Yamanaka Castle (from the signboard at the site)

Hojo’s Unique Methods for building Castle

The techniques used in the castle were unique to the Hojo Clan. All the enclosures were made of earthworks, using natural terrain such as ridges and valleys. They were mainly connected by wooden bridges which could fall down when a battle happened. They were also divided by deep dry moats whose bottoms were left parallel or as latticed ridges. The method for building the moats is called “Une-bori” for the parallel ridges and “Shoji-bori” for the latticed ridges. These dry moat building methods are considered features of the Hojo’s castles. Once soldiers fell into the moat, they couldn’t move from there at all. The area of the castle reached about 200,000 square meters. Hojo thought the castle could make Hideyoshi stuck for a while.

Fall in Battle of Yamanaka Castle

However, the castle was captured by Hideyoshi in just half a day. In the early morning, March 29, 1590, nearly 70,000 soldiers of Hideyoshi’s troop started to attack the castle, while the number of the defenders was only about 4,000. The attackers first charged both the West Turret and the Taizaki-Demaru defense strongpoint, but they suffered a significant number of casualties by the counterattack of Hojo’s guns. If it was a local battle, the attacker might have paused the charge to prevent more damages. However, the commanders forcibly continued to charge, otherwise, they might have been fired by the ruler. That resulted in the success of capturing the castle for Hideyoshi in exchange for a lot of dead soldiers including one of the Hideyoshi’s commander, Naosue Hitotsuyanagi.

The Portrait of Hideyoshi Toyotomi, attributed to Mitsunobu Kano, ownd by Kodaiji Temple (licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

This battle lasted for a few hours. It is said that another reason for the short battle was that Hojo’s soldiers were confused because their head, Ujikatsu Hojo, escaped from the castle. Others point out that the Taizaki-Demaru defense strongpoint was unfinished in construction before Hideyoshi’s attack. Anyway, even such a strong castle couldn’t survive without enough soldiers and the right instructions.

To be continued in “Yamanaka Castle Part2”