is a Japanese castle in the city of

Okayama is the capital city of Okayama Prefecture in the Chūgoku region of Japan. The city was founded on June 1, 1889. , the city has an estimated population of 720,841 and a population density of 910 persons per km2. The total area is . The city is ...

Okayama Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Okayama Prefecture has a population of 1,906,464 (1 February 2018) and has a geographic area of 7,114 km2 (2,746 sq mi). Okayama Prefecture borders Tottori Prefecture to the ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

. The main tower was completed in 1597, destroyed in 1945 and replicated in concrete in 1966. Two of the watch towers survived the bombing of 1945 and are now listed by the national

Agency for Cultural Affairs The is a special body of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). It was set up in 1968 to promote Japanese arts and culture. The agency's budget for FY 2018 rose to ¥107.7 billion. Overview The ag ...

as Important Cultural Properties. In stark contrast to the white "Egret Castle" of neighboring Himeji, Okayama Castle has a black exterior, earning it the nickname or "castle of the black bird". (The black castle of

Matsumoto Matsumoto (松本 or 松元, "base of the pine tree") may refer to: Places * Matsumoto, Nagano (松本市), a city ** Matsumoto Airport, an airport southwest of Matsumoto, Nagano * Matsumoto, Kagoshima (松元町), a former town now part of the c ...

in Nagano is also known as "Crow Castle", but it is ''karasu-jō'' in Japanese.) Today, only a few parts of Okayama Castle's roof (including the fish-shaped-gargoyles) are gilded, but prior to the

Battle of Sekigahara The Battle of Sekigahara (Shinjitai: ; Kyūjitai: , Hepburn romanization: ''Sekigahara no Tatakai'') was a decisive battle on October 21, 1600 ( Keichō 5, 15th day of the 9th month) in what is now Gifu prefecture, Japan, at the end of ...

the main keep also featured gilded roof tiles, earning it the nickname .

History

In 1570, Ukita Naoie killed castle lord Kanemitsu Munetaka and started remodeling the castle and completed by his son Hideie in 1597. Three years later, Hideie sided with the ill-fated

Toyotomi Clan The was a Japanese clan that ruled over the Japanese before the Edo period. Unity and conflict The most influential figure within the Toyotomi was Toyotomi Hideyoshi, one of the three "unifiers of Japan". Oda Nobunaga was another primary ...

at the Battle of Sekigahara, was captured by the

Tokugawa Clan The is a Japanese dynasty that was formerly a powerful '' daimyō'' family. They nominally descended from Emperor Seiwa (850–880) and were a branch of the Minamoto clan (Seiwa Genji) through the Matsudaira clan. The early history of this cl ...

and exiled to the island prison of Hachijo. The castle and surrounding fiefdoms were given to

Kobayakawa Hideaki (1577 – December 1, 1602) was the fifth son of Kinoshita Iesada and the nephew of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. He was gained the rank of ''Saemon no Kami'' (左衛門督) or in China ''Shikkingo'' (執金吾) at genpuku and held the court title ...

as spoils of war. Kobayakawa died just two years later without leaving an heir, and the castle (and fiefdom) was given to the

Ikeda Clan was a Japanese clan that claimed descent from Minamoto no Yorimitsu (948-1021) of the Seiwa Genji. Minamoto no Yasumasa, the fourth generation descending from Yorimitsu, and younger brother of Minamoto no Yorimasa (1104-1180), was the first to ...

, who later added

Kōraku-en is a Japanese garden located in Okayama, Okayama Prefecture. It is one of the Three Great Gardens of Japan, along with Kenroku-en and Kairaku-en. Korakuen was built in 1700 by Ikeda Tsunamasa, lord of Okayama. The garden reached its mode ...

as a private garden. In 1869 the castle became the property of the Meiji government's '' Hyōbu-shō'' (Ministry of War), who saw the 'samurai' era castles as archaic and unnecessary. Like many other castles throughout Japan, the outer moats were filled in and the old castle walls gradually disappeared underneath the city. On June 29, 1945, allied bombers burnt the castle to the ground. Reconstruction work began in 1964 and was completed in 1966. In 1996 the rooftop gargoyles were gilded as part of the 400th anniversary celebrations. The reconstructed castle is a concrete building complete with air-conditioning, elevators and numerous displays documenting the castle's history (with a heavy focus on the Ikeda era.) Little information is available in English. Access to the inner sanctuary is free.

Gallery

File:Okayama_Castle_03.jpg, The main facade of Okayama Castle File:Okayama_Castle.IMG_5917.jpg, Okayama castle File:Okayama_castle17n3200.jpg, Okayama castle and the Asahi river File:Okayama_Castle,_November_2016_-02.jpg, Okayama Castle (November 2016) File:Okayama_castle21.jpg, Okayama castle in a historic painting File:Burg_Okayama_Plan.jpg, OKayama castle plan

References

External links

Okayama Castle Guide homepage (in English)
{{Authority control Castles in Okayama Prefecture Okayama Museums in Okayama Prefecture History museums in Japan Houses completed in 1597 Historic Sites of Japan Important Cultural Properties of Japan Buildings and structures in Japan destroyed during World War II Ikeda clan Kobayakawa clan Ukita clan

History

Gallery

See also

References

Further reading

External links