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

19.Kawagoe Castle Part3

We will finally visit the remaining Main Hall in the main enclosure. It is one of the four remaining halls for exiting castles in Japan, which is very rare and valuable. In the case of Kawagoe Castle, two parts of its hall remain, its entrance and the office for the senior vassals.

Features

The Main Hall in the main enclosure (the main entrance)

From Main Entrance to Hiroma Room

Visitors usually enter the main one which has a luxurious decoration. It also has Hiroma (meaning large room),several waiting rooms for messengers, and officers’ rooms.

The layout of the current Main Hall, the entrance part is below and the senior vassals’ office is above, from the signboard at the site

The Hiroma is the first room after entering, which is the largest with an alcove and paintings on ceder-board doors as the hall’s face. An interest thing about the room is that you can see lots of traces of volleyballs on its ceiling. This is because the room was once used as the gym of a school.

The traces of volleyballs on the ceiling

Office for Senior Vassals

The senior vassals’ office was originally built at a different position, moved to another site and finally returned to the current position. In the back room, three vassals’ figures show they are discussing the matter of Shinagawa Batteries which the Kawagoe Domain was in charge of to guard Edo Bay.

The layout of the original Main Hall, the senior vassals’ office (marked by the red lines above) was little far from the entrance part (marked by the red lines below), from the signboard at the site

The figures are discussing in the back room

The drawing they are looking at seems to be about Shinagawa Batteries

Later History

After the Meiji Restoration, Kawagoe Castle was abandoned and all the castle buildings excluding the Main Hall were demolished. Most of the castle area was turned into the city area by destroying the earthen walls and filling the water moats. The remaining Main Hall was first turned into the prefectural office. After that, it changed to a public hall, a factory building, a martial arts hall, and finally a school building or gym. Its remaining part might have been reduced during the diversions. However, Saitama Prefecture designated the hall as a prefectural cultural property in 1967. Kawagoe City planed the development of the park around the castle and is carrying out it one by one.

The area around the Main Hall has recently been developed in a good condition

Miyoshino Shrine, which is located next to the main enclosure, has remained since the Edo Period

My Impression

I think there was no other way than using the castle area to develop the modern city area. That’s why Kawagoe City still prospers with commerce, agriculture, industries, and tourism. On the other hand, I am also pleased to see the volleyball traces on the remaining Main Hall. I imagine if there was a similar case to use an old hall as a gym, it could be replaced with a new building. I also guess locals in Kawagoe wanted to somehow maintain the hall no matter how it was used.

the street with Kura storehouses of Kawagoe

The ceiling of the Hiroma room of the Main Hall

How to get There

If you want to visit there by car, it is about a 15-minute drive away from Kawagoe IC on the Kanetsu Expressway.
There are several parking lots around the main enclosure.
By public transportation, take the Co-Edo Loop Bus from JR Kawagoe Station or Tobu Hon-Kawagoe Station and get off at the Honmaru-Goten bus stop.

That’s all. Thank you.
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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.
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124.Shinagawa Batteries Part2

The battery is basically a flat structure to avoid being targeted from enemies’ guns and cannons, so visitors can not easily recognize its whole view. That’s why I recommend seeing the bird’s eye view before or after your visitation.

Later History

The later lives of the Shinagawa batteries have been mixed.
The No.1 and 5 Batteries have been engulfed by landfills.
The No.2 and No.7 (which was left because of the canceled construction) have been removed due to the convenience of transportation.
The No.4 (same as No.7) was sold to the private sector before being used for the ground of a dock. The ground has finally become a redevelopmental area of the waterfront, called Tennoz Isle. The remaining stone walls of the No.4 Battery can be seen as the base of its boardwalk.
The No.3 and No.6 are the last remaining historical sites. They were designated as a National Historic Site in 1926 and the No.3 Battery was opened as the Daiba Park in 1928.

Shinagawa Batteries drawn in a Ukiyoe-painting called the illustration of a steam locomotive at the seaside below Yatsuyama Mountain in Tokyo, attributed to Hiroshige Utagawa the third, in the Meiji Era, exhibited by Tokyo Metropolitan Library, The No.2 Battery was used as a lighthouse

The aerial photo around the batteries around 1945 to 1950

The aerial photo around the batteries around 1975

The stone walls of the No.4 Battery support the boardwalk

How to get There

Currently, there are two remaining batteries, No.3 and No.6 out of the five completed ones as mentioned above. In addition, only the ruins of the No.3 Battery are open to the public as a park. If you want to visit the No.3 battery ruins, which has now become Daiba Park, it takes about 10 minutes on foot from Odaibakaihinkoen Station on the Yurikamome line.

Walking from Tamachi Station

However, in order to look over the whole view of the two ruins (No.3 and No.6), try this route.
Get out of the train at Tamachi station on the JR Yamanote Line. Exit from the east entrance of the station. Go along Nagisa street for the time being. You can see the Rainbow Bridge which has promenades on both sides (north and south).

Get in the Shibaura entrance of the bridge and go up using the elevator. Select the south route to see the ruins to the south. If you go straight through the promenade, you will first see the whole view of the No.6 Battery.

No.6 Battery like Birds’ Paradise

The battery is still isolated in the Tokyo Bay, being left as it has been to keep its original condition as much as possible though the canons and relative facilities were already removed. That’s why it looks as if it was during the first sight. However, if you look at it carefully, it is all covered with trees with uncountable number of birds gathering. According to a historian who visited it with permission from the government, it smells very bad and some structures collapsed naturally. It might have just become the birds’ paradise, so we may need to re-consider how to preserve it.

Great View of No.3 Battery

When the promenade goes down with moderate slope, you will be near the park and the view of the No.3 Battery is becoming bigger and bigger. At this point, you will be facing the pier of the battery, it is the biggest one and extremely amazing! It is really a bird’s eye view. It also looks very much better than the No.6 in my opinion. The battery is basically a flat structure to avoid being targeted from enemies’ guns and cannons, so visitors can not easily recognize its whole view. That’s why I recommend seeing the bird’s eye view before or after your visitation.

The great view of the No.3 Battery right in front

The signpost of the Shinagawa Batteries at the edge

To be continued in “Shinagawa Batteries Part3”
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