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

82.Ozu Castle Part1

Many clans developed Ozu Castle and the area around.

Location and History

Utsunomiya Clan first builds Castle

Ozu Castle was located in the southern part of Iyo Province on Shikoku Island, which is now Ozu City in Ehime Prefecture. The castle was first built on a hill called Jizogadake by the Utsunomiya Clan in the 14th Century. This location was near the intersection of Ozu-Uwajima Road and Hijikawa River, an important point for transportation. The Utsunomiya Clan eventually became one of the local warlords in the province during the Sengoku Period in the late 15th to the 16th Century.

The range of Iyo Province and the location of the castle

Takatora Todo modernizes Castle

After Hideyoshi Toyotomi achieved his unification of Japan, Takatora Todo, who worked under Hideyoshi owned Ozu Castle in 1595. He was based in Uwajima Castle, but he modernized both Ozu and Uwajima Castles. The details of improved Ozu Castle by Takatora are uncertain, because the ruins of it are under the current Ozu Castle. However, it is thought that the basic structure of the castle was completed by him. The Main Enclosure was on the hill beside Hijikawa River flowing from the east to the north of the castle. The Second Enclosure was below the hill on the opposite side of the river. Both enclosures were surrounded by the Inner Mort in the south and west. The Third Enclosure and the Outer Moat were also outside of them. The water of the moats was from the river, so the castle is also called a River Castle.

The portrait of Takatora Todo, private owned (licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

The illustration of Ozu Castle in Iyo Province, exhibited by the National Diet Library of Japan

Yasuharu Wakizaka builds Main Tower?

In 1609, Yasuharu Wakizaka, was transferred from Sumoto Castle to Ozu Castle as the founder of the Ozu Domain. It is said that he built the four leveled Main Tower in the Main Enclosure. Some historians also speculate that he might have moved the Main Tower of Sumoto Castle to Ozu. This is because the sizes of the stone wall bases for both castles are almost the same, according to the recent research. The two two-story turrets called Daidokoro-Yagura and Koran-Yagura were built at both sides of the Main Tower, connected by the Passage Turrets. Many other turrets were also built in the important positions of each enclosure.

The portrait of Yasuharu Wakizaka, owned by Tatsuno Shrine (licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

The stone wall base for the Main Tower and the imitation Tower of Sumoto Castle

The old photo of the Main Tower and the Daidokoro-Yagura Turret of Ozu Castle, from the signboard at the site

Kato Clan maintains Castle

In 1617, the Kato Clan was transferred from Yonago Castle to Ozu Castle, which governed the castle and the Ozu Domain over 13 generations until the end of the Edo Period. The domain didn’t have a large territory (60 thousand rice of koku) which meant they were not rich. However, it promoted industries such as Tobe pottery, Japanese papers and Japan wax. It also founded the domain school called Meirinkan to educate warriors. At the end of the Edo Period, one of the warriors, Ayasaburo Takeda learned the Western military science after graduation. He lastly built the first Western style castle called Goryokaku in Hakodate, Hokkaido Island, he also worked as the instructor of the Tokugawa Shogunate.

The portrait of Sadayasu Kato, the first lord of the clan, owned by Ozu City Museum (licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

Ayasaburo Takeda (licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

As for Ozu Castle, the Second Enclosure became the center of the castle in the peaceful time, having the Main Hall, warehouses surrounded by the Main Gate and some turrets.

The Second Enclosure drawn in the Illustration of Ozu Castle in 1692, exhibited in the castle

To be continued in “Ozu Castle Part2”

164.Sumoto Castle Part1

A great castle on Awaji Island

Location and History

Castle built in Independent Awaji Province

Sumoto Caste was located on Awaji Island which is between the main island of Japan and Shikoku Island with two narrow straits. Awaji Island is also surrounded by the Harima Sea, Osaka Bay and Kii Channel. The island was also near Kyoto, which was considered the center of Japan. Awaji was regarded as an important location before the Modern Times, especially for controlling and monitoring water transportation.

The location of the castle

As a result, it became an independent province and was called Awaji Province (what is now part of Hyogo Prefecture). In the 16th Century during the Sengoku Period, the Atagi Clan under the Miyoshi Clan first built Sumoto Castle for commanding navy forces. However, the Atagi Clan surrendered to the ruler, Hideyoshi Toyotomi in 1581. Hideyoshi finally sent his retainer, Yasuharu Wakizaka, to Sumoto Castle in 1585. Yasuharu governed the castle as the lord of the Sumoto Domain for 24 years until 1609 when he was transferred to Ozu Castle.

Yasuharu Wakizawa improved Castle significantly

Sumoto Castle was originally a simple mountain castle made of soil on Mikuma-yama Mountain where the sea area around can be seen from the top. Yasuharu renovated Sumoto Castle by building stone walls and many turrets including the Main Tower on the mountain. These structures came from the typical method for building castles used by Hideyoshi and his retainers. This building method spread across the whole country during Hideyoshi’s unification of Japan. They made their castles stronger which made people recognize their authority. Yasuharu also built his main hall and the castle town at the foot of the mountain. He finally constructed a direct route made with terraced stone walls called Nobori-Ishigaki or the Climbing Stone Walls. The stone walls connected the foot and the top of the mountain. This is one of the few remaining examples of it which some lords, including Yasuharu, developed during the Imjin War in Korea for transmission or defense. He applied it to Sumoto Castle after he returned to Japan. Sumoto Castle was then considered completed.

The relief map around the castle

Castle is once abandoned

However, Sumoto Castle was not used by other lords after Yasuharu was transferred. This was because Awaji Province became part of their territories and they used other castles as their branch castles in the province. Moreover, the castle was once abandoned after The Law of One Castle per Province by the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1615. All the buildings on the mountain were demolished by the Hachisuka Clan which governed Awaji Province and Awa Province (what is now Tokushima Prefecture) at that time. According to a theory, the Main Tower for Sumoto Castle was moved to Ozu Castle by Yasuharu before Sumoto Castle was abandoned. The style of the Main Tower at Ozu Castle matches one of the popular methods for main towers when Yasuharu was at Sumoto Castle.

The location of branch castles in Awaji Island

Stone walls maintained as branch of Hachisuka Clan

In 1631, the Hachisuka Clan restored Sumoto Castle as their branch castle in Awaji Province for reasons unknown. They sent their senior vassal, the Inada Clan to the castle to govern it. However, the center of the castle was set at the foot of the mountain by re-building the main hall for the lord. The mountain part had just the maintained stone walls which the Wakizaka Clan built, with few new gates added. This is probably because Sumoto Castle was a branch of Hachisuka Clan, not their home base called Tokushima Castle, but needed as a place for emergency on the mountain. This unique design was kept until the end of the Edo Period in the middle of the 19th Century.

Part of the illustration of Sumoto Castle and the castle town, in the Edo Period, exhibited by the National Diet Library, Only the stone walls already remained on the mountain

The castle ruins of the foot of the mountain(licensed by Reggaeman via Wikimedia Commons)

To be continued in “Sumoto Castle Part2”

13.白河小峰城（Shirakawa-Komine Castle）

白河駅から見た白河小峰城（A view of Shirakawa-Komine Castle from Shirakawa Station）

Location and History

現在白河市となっている地域は、日本の東北地方の入り口でありました。古代にはこの地域には、現代においてもよく知られている白河の関がありました。中世にはこの地域にはいくつか城が築かれましたが、白河小峰城はそのうちの一つでした。江戸時代になって、丹羽氏がこの城を治め、御三階櫓と呼ばれた三層の櫓を含め城を完成させました。御三階櫓は１４ｍの高さがあり、その大きさからは事実上の「天守」と言っていいものでした。
The area now called Shirakawa city was the entrance of the Tohoku district in Japan. In the Ancient Ages, the area had the Shirakawa Barrier which is very famous even now. In the Middle Ages, several castles were built in this area, one of them was the Shirakawa-Komine Castle. In the Edo Period, the Niwa clan took over and completed the castle including the three story turret called “Gosankai-Yagura”. Gosankai-Yagura was so large that it could actually be the castle keep “Tenshu” which was 14m tall.

*奥州白河城絵図部分、江戸時代（Part of the illustration of Shirakawa Castle in Oshu District in Edo Period）｜出典：国立公文書館*

城主は丹羽氏から松平氏など他の大名に何度か変わりました。明治維新のとき、白河口の戦いがこの城の周辺で、新政府軍と旧幕府軍の間で起こりました。幕府軍は新式の装備を備えた政府軍に敗れ去りました。そしてこの城は破壊され、御三階櫓もまた焼け落ちたのです。
The lords of the castle changed from Niwa to others such as the Matsudaira clan. During the Meiji Restoration, the Battle of Shirakawaguchi took placed between the new Government Amy and the former Shogunate Amy around the castle. The Shogunate Amy was beaten by the Government Amy with modern equipment, and the castle was destroyed. Gosankai-yagura was also burned down.

破壊された白河小峰城（The destroyed Shirakawa-Komine Castle）licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

Features

それでも今なお、元の御三階櫓と全く同じ木造建築を見ることができています。
We can still see the wooden building exactly the same as the original Gosankai-Yagura.

それは、一時期城主だった松平定信が詳細な図面を作成させ、それが幸運にも現代に残っているからです。それに加えて白河市が、元来の工法で櫓を再建することを決断したからです。
That’s because the once lord Sadanobu Matsudaira ordered to make drawings of the castle in details and they luckily still remain. In addition, officials decided to rebuild the building in the original way.

松平定信自画像（The self-portlait of Sadanobu Matsudaira）licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedea Commons

ビジターは中に入ることができます。中はどちらかというと狭く、暗く、階段は急です。それは元通りに作られ、そもそも戦いのための建物だったからなのですが。案内係の方が安全に見て回れるよう誘導してくれます。また、城の周りを囲む石垣も見ものです。この石垣は、２０１１年の東日本大震災でかなり崩れてしまったのですが、現時点では復旧しています。
Visitors can enter inside. The inside is rather narrow, dark and the stairs are steep as it is made in the old style and originally made for battles. Official instructors will guide you in order to look around safely. It is also recommended to see stone walls surrounding the castle. These walls partly collapsed due to the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011. But they have already been restored now.

石垣とその向こうに見える御三階櫓（The stone walls with Gosankai-Yagura over there）

Later Life

明治時代、城跡は公園に転用され、そこには野球場が建設されました。しかし、昭和時代の後半になって、市民の多くの要望により白河市は城跡の整備方針を変更しました。城を往時の状態のまま復元できないか考え始めたのです。それは、大型の城郭建築物を再建する方法としては、現代日本において初めての試みでした。
In the Meiji Era, the ruins of the castle were turned into a park in which the baseball stadium was constructed. But in the late Showa Era, officials changed its policy of developing the ruins because of a lot of request from citizens. They were wondering if the castle would be restored to the original condition. That would be the first attempt in the way large castle buildings are rebuilt in present day Japan.

１９７０年代の城周辺の航空写真（The aerial photo of the area around the castle in 1970s）

しかし、そこには大きな法的制約がありました。日本の建築基準法は高さ１３ｍを超える木造建築物に厳しい規制を課していました。この法に従えば、白河小峰城の櫓のような新築で大型の、且つ伝統的工法の木造建築物は作れないことになっているのです。そこで白河市は櫓の復元を続けるにあたって、それを建築物ではなく、法で認められる工作物として届け出ました。そして１９９１年に復元は完成したのです。
However, there was a big problem with the law. Japan’s Building Standard Act has very strict restrictions on wooden buildings which are over 13m tall. According to this law, new large old-style wooden buildings like the Shirakawa-Komine castle turret are not allowed to be built. So officials continued the restoration of the turret as not a building, but a structure that would be allowed by the law. It was completed in 1991.

ところが新たな問題が発生しました。国の当局が、櫓は「建築物」ではないのだからビジターを櫓のほとんどの場所には入れてはいけないと言ってきたのです。最終的には１９９３年に建築基準法に歴史的建築物に対する例外規定が追加され、御三階櫓は全て公開されることになったのです。
But another problem occurred as the government made the most part of the turret inaccessible visitors, because it was not “a building”. At last, the law had the provisions to be exempt for historical buildings in 1993. The three story turret Gosankai-yagura was finally open to visitors.

My Impression

本当に白河市の職員、市民の方々の成果に対しては尊敬の念を抱きます。その真摯な努力は、日本の城郭維持の新しい方法への流れを導いたと言えます。白河小峰城のケースは、その後続く白石城、掛川城、大洲城などの「平成の木造復元ブーム」のさきがけとなったのです。
I really respect the achievement of the officials and people in Shirakawa City. Their great effort led to the movement towards new methods for maintaining castles in Japan. The case of Shirakawa-Komine Castle was the pioneer of “The boom of wooden restoration in the Heisei era” followed by other castles such as Shiroishi, Kakegawa, Ozu and so on.

復元された掛川城（The restored Kakegawa Castle）taken by Oshiro-man from photo AC

How to get There

白河小峰城は、ＪＲ白河駅からすぐ近くです。白河駅のプラットフォームからも御三階櫓の素晴らしい眺めを見ることができます。
東京から白河駅まで：東北新幹線で新白河駅まで行き、東北本線に乗り換え。次の駅が白河駅です。
The castle is very near the JR Shirakawa station. You can even see the nice view of Gosankai-yagura from the platform.
From Tokyo to the station: Get the Tohoku Shinkansen super express to the Shin-Shirakawa st., and transfer to the Tohoku Line. The destination will be the next station.

白河駅のプラットフォームからの眺め（A view from the platform of Shirakawa Station）

Links and References

・小峰城跡【こみねじょうあと】 | 白河市公式ホームページ(City of Shirakawa)
・埋木帖～城の復元と法令①　白河小峰城三重櫓（only Japanese）