is a ''hirayama''-style

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 ...

. It was the seat of various ''

fudai daimyō was a class of ''daimyō'' (大名) in the Tokugawa Shogunate (徳川幕府) of Japan who were hereditary vassals of the Tokugawa before the Battle of Sekigahara. ''Fudai daimyō'' and their descendants filled the ranks of the Tokugawa admin ...

'' clans who ruled over Kakegawa Domain,

Tōtōmi Province was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today western Shizuoka Prefecture.Louis-Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Tōtōmi''" in . Tōtōmi bordered on Mikawa Province, Mikawa, Suruga Province, S ...

, in what is now central Kakegawa,

Shizuoka Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Shizuoka Prefecture has a population of 3,555,818 and has a geographic area of . Shizuoka Prefecture borders Kanagawa Prefecture to the east, Yamanashi Pref ...

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 ...

Background

Kakegawa Castle is located at a small hill in the center of Kakegawa, which had been an important post station on the Tōkaidō highway connecting

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

with eastern Japan since the

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 ...

. Because of its geographical location, Kakegawa was strategic point in controlling the eastern half of Tōtōmi province.

History

The first Kakegawa Castle was built by

Asahina Yasuhiro Asahina (written: or ) is a Japanese surname, which means "sunny place". Notable people with the surname include: People *, a Japanese clan during the Sengoku period *, Japanese actress and model *, Japanese voice actress *, Japanese long-distance ...

in the Bunmei era (1469–1487), a retainer of the warlord

Imagawa Yoshitada was the father of the famed Imagawa Ujichika and the 9th head of the Imagawa clan. Yoshitada spent most of his time invading Tōtōmi Province was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today western Shizuoka ...

to consolidate his holdings over

. The castle remained in the hands of the succeeding generations of the Asahina clan. After the defeat of the Imagawa clan at the Battle of Okehazama, the former Imagawa territories were divided between

Takeda Shingen was daimyō, daimyo of Kai Province during the Sengoku period of Japan. Known as "the Tiger of Kai", he was one of the most powerful daimyo of the late Sengoku period, and credited with exceptional military prestige. Shingen was based in a p ...

of Kai and

Tokugawa Ieyasu Tokugawa Ieyasu (born Matsudaira Takechiyo; 31 January 1543 – 1 June 1616) was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which ruled from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was the third of the three "Gr ...

of Mikawa. Kakegawa Castle was surrendered to Tokugawa forces in 1568 by Asahina Yasutomo after a five month siege. The surrounding area remained a territory contested between the Tokugawa and Takeda for many years; however, Kakegawa Castle remained in Tokugawa hands until the fall of the

Takeda clan The was a Japanese samurai clan active from the late Heian period until the late 16th century. The clan was historically based in Kai Province in present-day Yamanashi Prefecture. The clan reached its greatest influence under the rule of Taked ...

. After the Battle of Odawara in 1590 and the rise to power of

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

, Tokugawa Ieyasu was forced to trade his domains in the

Tōkai region The is a subregion of the Chūbu region and Kansai region in Japan that runs along the Pacific Ocean. The name comes from the Tōkaidō, one of the Edo Five Routes. Because Tōkai is a sub-region and is not officially classified, there is ...

for the

Kantō region The is a geography, geographical region of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. In a common definition, the region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures of Japan, prefectures: Chiba Prefecture, Chiba, Gunma Prefe ...

instead. Kakegawa was relinquished to Toyotomi retainer Yamauchi Kazutoyo as the center of a new 51,000 ''

koku The is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. One koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about of rice. It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1,000 gō. One ''gō'' is the traditional volume of a single serving of rice (before co ...

'' (later 59,000 ''koku'') domain. Yamauchi Kazutoyo completely rebuilt the castle per the latest contemporary designs, and the current layout and much of the stone walls and moats date from his period. After the establishment of 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 ...

, the Tokugawa recovered their lost territories, and reassigned Tōtōmi to various '' fudai

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 ...

''. The Yamauchi clan was reassigned to Kōchi in

Shikoku is the smallest of the List of islands of Japan#Main islands, four main islands of Japan. It is long and between at its widest. It has a population of 3.8 million, the least populated of Japan's four main islands. It is south of Honshu ...

, and Kakegawa was assigned initially to Hisamatsu Sadakatsu. Over the years, numerous ''daimyō'' clans ruled Kakegawa Domain, ending with seven generations of the Ōta clan. The keep built by the Yamauchi was destroyed in an earthquake in 1604, and reconstructed in 1621. The castle was kept in repair through the Bakumatsu period, however it suffered from extensive damage in 1854, due to the Ansei Tōkai earthquake. Many structures were rebuilt by 1861, and were in use after 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 Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

as local government offices; however, the

keep A keep 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 castles that were fortified residen ...

was not rebuilt after the earthquake.

Today

Kakegawa Castle remained in ruins through the

Shōwa period Shōwa most commonly refers to: * Hirohito (1901–1989), the 124th Emperor of Japan, known posthumously as Emperor Shōwa ** Shōwa era (昭和), the era of Hirohito from 1926 to 1989 * Showa Corporation, a Japanese suspension and shock manufactu ...

, with the notable exception of the (''daimyō''s mansion), built by Ōta Sukekatsu after the earthquake, and registered with the government in 1980 as an Important Cultural Property. Other surviving portions of the castle included a portion of the moats and stone walls, a guardhouse, and the drum house. A gate from the main bailey of the castle built in 1659 was given to the Buddhist temple of Yusan-ji in Fukuroi, where it now serves as the main gate of that temple. It is also a National ICP. In April 1994, sections of the innermost bailey (''honmaru''), including some walls, a '' yagura'', and the keep (''tenshukaku''), were reconstructed using the original methods. The ''tenshukakus reconstruction was done based on a few diagrams of the original ''tenshukaku'' that survived, and marked the first time in post-war Japan that a ''tenshukaku'' had been reconstructed in wood using the original construction methods.Turnbull, Steven. ''Castles of Japan''. Osprey Publishing. 2003. The cost of 1 billion yen for the reconstruction was raised largely through public donation. In 2006, the site of Kakegawa Castle was listed as of the 100 Fine Castles of Japan by the Japan Castle Foundation, primarily due to its historical significance.

Notes

References

* * * * * *

External links

Profile at J-Castle

Shizuoka Prefecture Tourism AssociationJapan Visitor’s Guide
{{Authority control Castles in Shizuoka Prefecture Museums in Shizuoka Prefecture History museums in Japan 100 Fine Castles of Japan Kakegawa, Shizuoka Important Cultural Properties of Japan Ōta clan