141115 Ako Castle Ako Hyogo pref Japan23n

is a flatland

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 the city of Akō,

Hyōgo Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Hyōgo Prefecture has a population of 5,469,762 () and has a geographic area of . Hyōgo Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the east, Osaka Prefecture to the southeast, an ...

, Japan. Built by the

Asano clan The was a Japanese samurai clan that descended from the Minamoto clan, and the Emperor Seiwa (850-881), the 56th Emperor of Japan. The Main Lineage (''sōke'', 宗家) were Lords (daimyō) of the Hiroshima Domain in Aki Province and another fam ...

in 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 ...

, it was the center of

Akō Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Harima Province in what is now the southwestern portion of modern-day Hyōgo Prefecture. It was centered around Akō Castle, which is located in what is now the ...

in western

Harima Province or Banshū (播州) was a province of Japan in the part of Honshū that is the southwestern part of present-day Hyōgo Prefecture. Harima bordered on Tajima, Tanba, Settsu, Bizen, and Mimasaka Provinces. Its capital was Himeji. During the ...

. The castle was designated a National Historic Site in 1971, with the area under protection expanded in 2003. Within the castle grounds is the ''Nagayamon'' gate to the residence of

Ōishi Kuranosuke Oishi may refer to: * Ōishi (surname), a Japanese surname * Oishi (Philippine brand), a snack company from the Philippines * Oishi Group, a Thai food-and-drink company * Ōishi Station is a railway station on the Hanshin Electric Railway Main ...

, the ''

karō were top-ranking samurai officials and advisors in service to the ''daimyōs'' of feudal Japan. Overview In the Edo period, the policy of ''sankin-kōtai'' (alternate attendance) required each ''daimyō'' to place a ''karō'' in Edo and anoth ...

'' of the domain under

Asano Naganori was the ''daimyō'' of the Akō Domain in Japan (1675–1701). His title was ''Takumi no Kami'' (). He is known as the person who triggered a series of incidents retold in a story known as ''Chūshingura'' (involving the forty-seven rōnin), o ...

. The house itself no longer exists, but its location has a separate National Historic Site designation. Both the Honmaru Garden and the Ni-no-Maru Gardens have been restored to an approximation of their appearance in the Edo period, and are collectively designated a National Place of Scenic Beauty in 20212.

Overview

Akō Castle is located on the southern seashore of Akō city, and guarded the border between former

and

Bizen Province was a province of Japan on the Inland Sea side of Honshū, in what is today the southeastern part of Okayama Prefecture. It was sometimes called , with Bitchū and Bingo Provinces. Bizen borders Mimasaka, Harima, and Bitchū Provinces. Bizen ...

. It was originally a small fortification erected by the local Oka clan in the 15th century. However, after the area was awarded to

Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fellow ...

's general and son-in-law

Ikeda Terumasa was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the early Edo period. His court title was '' Musashi no Kami''. Terumasa was also known by the nickname ''saigoku no shōgun'', or, "The ''Shōgun'' of Western Japan". Terumasa fought in many of the battles of the ...

after 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 ...

, and a new castle was constructed. The Ikeda clan ruled from

Himeji Castle is a hilltop Japanese castle complex situated in the city of Himeji which is located in the Hyōgo Prefecture of Japan. The castle is regarded as the finest surviving example of prototypical Japanese castle architecture, comprising a network of ...

, and Akō Castle was constructed as a secondary fortification to secure the domain's western borders. Ikeda Terumasa's vast holdings were broken up after his death, and his fifth son, Ikeda Masatsuna received a 35,000 ''

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 ...

'' portion which had been assigned as the widow's portion to his mother

Tokuhime Tokuhime may refer to: * Tokuhime (Oda) (徳姫) (1559–1636), daughter of Oda Nobunaga; also known as Gotokuhime * Tokuhime (Tokugawa) (督姫) (1565–1615), daughter of Tokugawa Ieyasu * (登久姫) (1576–1607), daughter of Matsudaira ...

. His younger brother, Ikeda Teruoki, inherited the domain in 1631. However, he went insane in 1645, murdering his concubine and several ladies-in-waiting, and was dispossessed. The Ikeda were replaced by a cadet branch of the

. Asano Naganao spend 13 years rebuilding Akō Castle on a scale far in excess of his ''

kokudaka refers to a system for determining land value for taxation purposes under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo-period Japan, and expressing this value in terms of ''koku'' of rice. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"Koku"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 54 ...

'' of 53,000 ''koku'' and also reconstructed the

castle town A castle town is a settlement built adjacent to or surrounding a castle. Castle towns were common in Medieval Europe. Some examples include small towns like Alnwick and Arundel, which are still dominated by their castles. In Western Europe, ...

. The castle had 12 gates and 10 '' yagura towers''. The design of the castle was unusual in that it consisted of concentric moated enclosure each shaped in a geometric pattern which may have been influenced by knowledge of Western

star fort A bastion fort or ''trace italienne'' (a phrase derived from non-standard French, literally meaning ''Italian outline'') is a fortification in a style that evolved during the early modern period of gunpowder when the cannon came to domin ...

designs. The stone foundation base of a five-story ''

tenshu is an architectural typology found in Japanese castle complexes. They are easily identifiable as the highest tower within the castle. Common translations of ''tenshu'' include keep, main keep, or ''donjon''. ''Tenshu'' are characterized as ty ...

'' was constructed, but it remained only as a foundation, and no ''tenshu'' was ever actually constructed. Although it is now far from the coastline, at the time of its construction it was built on the seashore, and it was possible to sail from docks located in the castle. The Asano clan were dispossessed following the famous

Forty-seven rōnin The revenge of the , also known as the or Akō vendetta, is a historical event in Japan in which a band of ''rōnin'' (lordless samurai) avenged the death of their master on 31 January 1703. The incident has since become legendary. It is on ...

incident, and the castle passed into the hands of the Mori clan who ruled over a much reduced Akō Domain from 1706 until the

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 ...

Current situation

Subsequent to Meiji restoration outer areas and most buildings were lost due to the 1873 Abolition of Castles Ordinance by the

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 ...

. Many of the buildings were pulled down, and portions of the stone walls were demolished to be used as a

revetment A revetment in stream restoration, river engineering or coastal engineering is a facing of impact-resistant material (such as stone, concrete, sandbags, or wooden piles) applied to a bank or wall in order to absorb the energy of incoming water ...

when the Chikusa River flooded in 1892. Many of the moats were filled in, and the site of the Honmaru central enclosure became a school in 1928. A portion of moats and one ''yagura'' were reconstructed in 1935 and more moats in 1953. Subsequently, several buildings and structures of inner area have been restored, including the Otemon main gate in 1955. The school was relocated in 1981, ten years after the site received National Historic Site designation. From the 1990s, reconstruction of the Honmaru garden began. Several more gates were restored by 1996. In 2006 Akō Castle was selected as one of

Japan's Top 100 Castles The castles in were chosen based on their significance in culture, history, and in their regions by the in 2006. In 2017, Japanese Castle Association created an additional finest 100 castles list as Continued Top 100 Japanese Castles. Hokkaidō ...

by the Japan Castle Association.Japan Castle Foundation
/ref>

Gallery

141115 Ako Castle Ako Hyogo pref Japan05bs3.jpg, Site of the Ni-no-Maru Gate Ako-Castle001.JPG, Honmaru rear gate (restored) 141115 Ako Castle Ako Hyogo pref Japan12s3.jpg, ''Masugata''-style Honmaru rear gate 141115 Ako Castle Ako Hyogo pref Japan26n.jpg, Honmaru Stable Gate 141115 Ako Castle Ako Hyogo pref Japan16bs5.jpg, Foundations of the Honmaru Palace 赤穂城跡・天守閣イルミネーション - panoramio - mikeneko.jpg, Foundation base of the Tenshu 141115 Ako Castle Ako Hyogo pref Japan24s3.jpg, Honmaru Palace ''Tsubo-niwa''　

References

Literature

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External links