refers to the ruins of a

Nara period The of the history of Japan covers the years from 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the capita ...

fortified settlement located in what is now the city Akita,

Akita Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Provinces and prefectures" in ; "Tōhoku" in . Its population is estimated 915,691 as of 1 August 2023 and its geographi ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. It is also sometimes referred to as “Fort Akita”. The name is sometimes used wrongly for Kubota Castle, an

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

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 a ...

which served as the headquarters or the Satake, ''

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 no ...

'' of

Kubota Domain was a Han (Japan), feudal domain in Edo period Japan, located in Dewa Province (modern-day Akita Prefecture), Japan. It was centered on Kubota Castle in what is now the city of Akita, Akita, Akita and was thus also known as the . It was governe ...

that was a domain in the northern part of

Dewa Province was a province of Japan comprising modern-day Yamagata Prefecture and Akita Prefecture, except for the city of Kazuno and the town of Kosaka. Dewa bordered on Mutsu and Echigō Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . History Early per ...

created by the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...

History

During the

Asuka period The was a period in the history of Japan lasting from 538 to 710, although its beginning could be said to overlap with the preceding Kofun period. The Yamato period, Yamato polity evolved greatly during the Asuka period, which is named after the ...

Abe no Hirafu was a Japanese military commander, strategist, and politician of the Asuka period. Some sources say he lived from c.575-664 Biography Events in his life are accounted in the Nihon Shoki and Kojiki, both written several decades after his dea ...

conquered the native

Emishi The were a group of people who lived in parts of northern Honshū in present-day Japan, especially in the Tōhoku region. The first mention of the Emishi in literature that can be corroborated with outside sources dates to the 5th century AD, ...

tribes at what are now the cities of Akita and Noshiro in 658 and established a fortification on the Mogami River. In the year 708 AD, “Dewa Country” was created out of the northern half of

Echigo Province was an old provinces of Japan, old province in north-central Japan, on the shores of the Sea of Japan. It bordered on Uzen Province, Uzen, Iwashiro Province, Iwashiro, Kōzuke Province, Kōzuke, Shinano Province, Shinano, and Etchū Province, ...

and was raised in status to

in 712 AD. However, at that time the region was still outside the effective control of the imperial court based in

Nara The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States government within the executive branch, charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It is also task ...

. A number of military expeditions were sent to the area, with armed colonists forming settlements fortified with moats and wooden palisades across central Dewa in what is now the Shōnai area of

Yamagata Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. It has a population of 1,005,926 (1 February 2025) and an area of 9,325 Square kilometre, km2 (3,600 Square mile, sq mi). Its neighbours are Akita Prefectu ...

. In 733, the fort on the Mogami River was moved north, and a new military settlement, later named “Akita Castle”, was built what is now in the Takashimizu area of the city of Akita. Abe no Yakamaro was sent as ''Chinjufu-Shōgun'', and Akita Castle became a base of operations to colonize the region and to subdue the native Emishi peoples. In 737, a major military operation began to connect Akita Castle with

Taga Castle was a ''jōsaku''-style Japanese castle built in the late Nara period in what is now part of the city of Tagajō in Miyagi prefecture in the Tōhoku region of far northern Honshu, Japan. Bashō tells of his visit to the site in ''Oku no Hosomi ...

on the Pacific Coast. Over the next 50 years, additional fortifications were erected at Okachi in Dewa Province and Monofu in Mutsu Province involving a force of over 5000 men. The road was greatly resented by the Emishi tribes, and after an uprising in 767, pacification expeditions were carried out in 776, 778, 794, 801 and 811. The castle was severely damaged in an earthquake in 830. In 878, a major rebellion known as the Ganki Disturbance (元慶の乱) erupted in the region against Yamato rule, which resulted in the destruction of a large part of Akita Castle. Another major uprising occurred in 939, known as the Tenki Disturbance (天慶の乱). However, Akita Castle was restored after each disaster and remained in use until the mid-

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

. From the 9th through the 11th centuries, Akita Castle was the residence of the “Dewa-no-suke”, or nominal deputy

governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

of Dewa Province. The title was later changed to “Akita-no-suke”. However, the castle was abandoned around 1050 during the Former Nine Years War.

Diplomatic Functions

The imperial dynasty built this northernmost fortification because it thought necessary to have an outpost there to properly receive (and occasionally refuse) diplomatic delegations from

Balhae Balhae,, , ) also rendered as Bohai or Bohea, and called Jin (; ) early on, was a multiethnic kingdom established in 698 by Dae Joyeong (Da Zuorong). It was originally known as the Kingdom of Jin (震, Zhen) until 713 when its name was changed ...

/Bohai. Because of the irregularity and unpredictability with which those delegations arrived, the dynasty once decided to abolish the Akita Castle in 770 but withdrew the decision ten years later. The very existence of the Akita Castle depended on Balhae/Bohai delegations until the end of the 8th century when the Balhae/Bohai delegations definitively changed their navigation route to Japan as they learned by then to build ships large enough to cross the Sea of Japan directly to the Noto Peninsula, they abandoned the northern route via the western coast of

Hokkaido is the list of islands of Japan by area, second-largest island of Japan and comprises the largest and northernmost prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own list of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō fr ...

. The Akita Castle then lost its diplomatic functions, which affected even its physical appearance.

Present day

Akita Castle was surrounded by earthen ramparts and had gates at each of the cardinal points. Archaeological excavations have found the foundations of the barracks as well as official buildings for the government of Dewa Province, as well as ceramic

roof tile Roof tiles are overlapping tiles designed mainly to keep out precipitation such as rain or snow, and are traditionally made from locally available materials such as clay or slate. Later tiles have been made from materials such as concrete, glass ...

s, wooden tally boards and documents on varnished paper. The site was proclaimed a National Historic Site in 1939. Archaeological excavations indicate that the site had approximate dimensions of 94 meters east-west and 77 meters north-south.Akita Castle Ruins
Ministry of Education site A number of the structures of Akita Castle have been reconstructed on their original foundations.

Literature

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External links

Akita Castle Jcastle Profile

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Notes

{{Authority control Castles in Akita Prefecture Historic Sites of Japan Nara period Buildings and structures in Akita (city)