was a

Japanese castle are fortresses constructed primarily of wood and stone. They evolved from the wooden stockades of earlier centuries, and came into their best-known form in the 16th century. Castles in Japan were built to guard important or strategic sites, such ...

located in Nagaoka,

Niigata Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture in the Chūbu region of Honshu of Japan. Niigata Prefecture has a population of 2,227,496 (1 July 2019) and is the List of Japanese prefectures by area, fifth-largest prefecture of Japan by geographic area ...

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 north ...

. At the end of the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

, Nagaoka Castle was home to a branch of the

Makino clan The are a ''daimyō'' branch of the ''samurai'' Minamoto clan in Edo period Japan.Alpert, Georges. (1888) ''Ancien Japon,'' p. 70./ref> In the Edo period, the Makino were identified as one of the '' fudai'' or insider ''daimyō'' clans which we ...

, ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and n ...

'' of

Nagaoka Domain was a '' fudai'' feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan. It is located in Echigo Province, Honshū. The domain was centered at Nagaoka Castle, located in what is now part of the city of Nagaoka in Niigata Prefecture. ...

History

The area around Nagaoka Castle was the territory of the

Hori clan Hori may refer to: Ancient Egypt *Sewadjkare Hori, late 13th dynasty Pharaoh, also known as Hori II *Hori (High Priest of Osiris) Son of Wennenufer and High Priest of Osiris during the reign of Ramesses II (19th dynasty) *Hori I (High Priest of Pta ...

under Hori Naoyori (1577-1639), who was elevated to the status of a 60,000 ''

koku The is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. 1 koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about . It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1000 gō. One ''gō'' is the volume of the "rice cup", the plastic measuring cup that is supplied ...

'' ''

'' for his services to

Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations that Changed the Cour ...

. Under the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

, Hori Naoyori was awarded an additional 20,000 ''koku'' from the holdings of the disgraced

Matsudaira Tadateru was a ''daimyō'' during the Edo period of Japan. He was the sixth son of Tokugawa Ieyasu. He was born in Edo Castle during the year of the dragon (''tatsu''), and as a child his name was Tatsuchiyo (辰千代). His mother was , a concubine of I ...

in 1616. Around this time, he relocated his seat from Zaōdo (蔵王堂) on the east bank of the

Shinano River The , known as the in its upper reaches, is the longest and widest river in Japan and the third largest by basin area (behind the Tone River and Ishikari River). It is located in northeastern Honshu, rising in the Japanese Alps and flowing g ...

to higher ground on the west bank. This marked the start of Nagaoka Castle. He was transferred to

Murakami Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Echigo Province (modern-day Niigata Prefecture), Japan. It was centered on Murakami Castle in what is now the city of Murakami, Niigata.Meiji restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

. Most of the castle burned down in March 1728 and was only restored in 1754. Another fire in 1844 destroyed two gates and a portion of the daimyo’s palace. The castle also suffered repeatedly from flooding due to its location, notably in 1671, 1674, 1781, and 1789. The Sanjō earthquake of 1829 also destroyed most of the castle structures. During the

Boshin War The , sometimes known as the Japanese Revolution or Japanese Civil War, was a civil war in Japan fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and a clique seeking to seize political power in the name of the Imperi ...

, representatives of the domain met with representatives of the

Satchō Alliance The , or was a powerful military alliance between the feudal domains of Satsuma and Chōshū formed in 1866 to combine their efforts to restore Imperial rule and overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan. History The name ''Satchō'' () is an ...

at a nearby temple, but the negotiations ended without agreement, and Nagaoka Castle was attacked and destroyed by the military forces of the new

Meiji government The was the government that was formed by politicians of the Satsuma Domain and Chōshū Domain in the 1860s. The Meiji government was the early government of the Empire of Japan. Politicians of the Meiji government were known as the Meiji o ...

. Following the warm the moats were filled in, and part of the castle site was sold to private hands. In 1898,

Nagaoka Station is a railway station in the city of Nagaoka, Niigata, Japan, operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East). The station is located 270.6 kilometers from . Lines Nagaoka Station is served by the following lines: * Joetsu Shinkansen *Shinet ...

was built on the eastern half of the Honmaru central bailey."Nagoaka Castle" Samurai Archives https://wiki.samurai-archives.com/index.php?title=Nagaoka_castle Nagaoka City Hall and other public structures occupy much of the remaining site.

Description

270px, left, Plan of Nagaoka Castle with ''Honmaru'' (1) and ''Ni-no-Maru'' (2) Nagaoka Castle was a flatland-style castle with two central baileys, the ''Honmaru'' (本丸) and the ''Ni-no-Maru'' (二の丸), both surrounded by a moat. These were in turn surrounded by the ''San-no-Maru'' (三の丸) and ''Tsume-no-Maru'' (詰の丸 ) Baileys, and the ''Minami-Kuruwa'' (南曲輪 ) and ''Nishi-Kuruwa'' (西曲輪) forecourts. This outer ring of defences was also surrounded by a moat. The castle had only earthen ramparts, with ''

yagura Yagura may refer to: * Yagura castle * Yagura opening * Yagura (tombs) * Yagura (tower) is the Japanese word for "tower", "turret", "keep", or "scaffold". The word is most often seen in reference to structures in Japanese castle compounds bu ...

'' watchtowers at various locations, and there was no

donjon A keep (from the Middle English ''kype'') is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in c ...

in the central bailey.

Literature

* * * * * Owada, Yasutsune: Nagaoka-jo in: Miura, Masayuki (eds): Shiro to Jinya. Tokoku-hen. Gakken, 2006.

References

External links

{{Commons category
Nagaoka Castle - A Collection of Photographs
Castles in Niigata Prefecture Ruined castles in Japan Nagaoka, Niigata