Kanō Tenman-gū was a ''hirajirō''-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, suc ...

located in the city of

Gifu is a city located in the south-central portion of Gifu Prefecture, Japan, and serves as the prefectural capital. The city has played an important role in Japan's history because of its location in the middle of the country. During the Sengoku ...

Gifu Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Gifu Prefecture has a population of 1,991,390 () and has a geographic area of . Gifu Prefecture borders Toyama Prefecture to the north; Ishikawa Prefecture ...

, Japan. It was one of the few castles built 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 establishment of the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in ...

and was used as an administrative center of

Kanō Domain 270px, Remnants of the walls of Kanō Castle was a '' fudai'' feudal domain of Edo period Japan. The domain was centered at Kanō Castle, located in what is now part of the city of Gifu in Gifu Prefecture. History Before the Battle of Sekig ...

under 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 character ...

, but only its ruins, including the base of the ''

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 ...

'' and stone walls, remain today.Rekishi no Meguri—Shiroato Meguri
. Gifu City Hall. Accessed May 26, 2008. The ruins were designated National Historic Site in 1983.

Structure

Kanō Castle is a long and narrow structure, approximately 550 meters north-to-south by 400 meters east-to-west) with a double moat. The main gate of the castle was on the north side, facing the

Nakasendō The , also called the ,Richard Lane, ''Images from the Floating World'' (1978) Chartwell, Secaucus ; pg. 285 was one of the five routes of the Edo period, and one of the two that connected Edo (modern-day Tokyo) to Kyoto in Japan. There were 69 ...

highway. The inner moat completely surrounded the main enclosure, and the outer moat was the Arata River to the east, the Shimizu River to the north, and connecting moats on the west and south. 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, ...

was located to the east, and the ''

shukuba were post stations during the Edo period in Japan, generally located on one of the Edo Five Routes or one of its sub-routes. They were also called ''shuku-eki'' (宿駅). These post stations (or "post towns") were places where travelers could ...

'' of Kanō-juku was located on the north. The main enclosure was square, with a protruding outer box. This is one of the characteristics of the early Tokugawa castles, this castle was thus the template for "Kanō-type castles" subsequently built at other locations. The '' yagura'' in the northeast corner of the Ni-no-maru second bailey served in lieu of a ''tenshu''. It was destroyed in 1728 and never rebuilt.

History

Kanō Castle is located south of the city of Gifu, and controlled the roads between

Mino Province was a province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today southern Gifu Prefecture. Mino was bordered by Ōmi to the west, Echizen and Hida to the north, and Shinano to the east, and Ise, Mikawa, and Owari to the south. Its abbrevia ...

and the

Kansai region The or the , lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshū. The region includes the prefectures of Nara, Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyōgo and Shiga, often also Mie, sometimes Fukui, Tokushima and Tottori. The metr ...

of Japan. The first construction of Kanō Castle began in 1445 by Saitō Toshinaga, who was a vassal of the

Toki clan The is a Japanese kin group. Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003)"Toki," ''Nobiliare du Japon'', p. 61 retrieved 2013-5-9. History The Toki claim descent from Minamot ...

. However, this castle was already abandoned by 1538. Following the

, the victorious

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 fel ...

awarded

Gifu Castle is a Japanese castle located in the city of Gifu, Gifu Prefecture, Japan. Along with Mount Kinka and the Nagara River, it is one of the main symbols of the city. The castle is also known as . It was designated a National Historic Site in 20 ...

to his son-in-law,

Okudaira Nobumasa called Okudaira Sadamasa (奥平貞昌), was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the Sengoku and early Edo periods. Nobumasa's family considered their origins to have been associated with Mikawa Province. The clan was descended through the Akamatsu fr ...

. However, due to its poor state of repair, Nobumasa decided to abolish Gifu Castle and to relocate to a new castle built on the site of the old Kanō Castle. This new structure was completed in 1603 in record time, as Ieyasu had ordered various ''

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

'' to contribute materials, labor and money for its construction, and the largest three-story ''yagura'' was transferred from Gifu Castle to be its ''

''.''Gifu City Walking Map''. Gifu Lively City Public Corporation, 2007. The design of the castle was also kept simple, with a minimal number of towers, as the castle was being constructed as a center of local administration in peacetime. The Kanō Tenman-gū, was built simultaneously with the castle, as a private place of worship for the Okudaira family. Because it was located in a popular post town, Kanō-juku,Nakasendo to Shukuba-machi
. Gifu City Hall. Accessed September 9, 2007. policies were eventually changed so that commoners could worship there too. Throughout the

, Kanō Castle served as the center of

, and was ruled by a series of ''

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 ...

''. 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 practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were r ...

, in 1872 all remaining buildings of the castle were destroyed, its moats filled in, and the outer areas of the castle were sold off. In 1900, the Gifu Prefectural Normal School was built on the site of the

inner bailey The inner bailey or inner ward of a castle is the strongly fortified enclosure at the heart of a medieval castle.Friar, Stephen (2003). ''The Sutton Companion to Castles'', Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 2003, p. 22. It is protected by the outer w ...

and in 1939 it became the headquarters of the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor ...

51st Air Division. After the end of the war, it continued as a military base of the

Japan Ground Self-Defense Force The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force ( ja, 陸上自衛隊, Rikujō Jieitai), , also referred to as the Japanese Army, is the land warfare branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces. Created on July 1, 1954, it is the largest of the three service ...

from 1954 to 1975. After the area was proclaimed a National Historic Site in 1983, it was excavated , and the foundations of many structures, stone wall, well and a large amount of earthenware shards were discovered. The site was backfilled after excavation and is now a park. All that remains of the castle are fragments of stone walls and a portion of the moat. The castle site is a 15 minutes walk from

Gifu Station is a railway station in the heart of the city of Gifu, Gifu Prefecture, Japan, operated by Central Japan Railway Company (JR Central). Lines Gifu Station is served by the JR Central Tōkaidō Main Line, and is located 396.3 kilometers from th ...

on the

JR Central is the main railway company operating in the Chūbu (Nagoya) region of central Japan. It is officially abbreviated in English as JR Central and in Japanese as JR Tōkai ( ja, JR東海, links=no). ''Tōkai'' is a reference to the geographical ...

Tōkaidō Main Line The is a major Japanese railway line of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) network, connecting and stations. It is long, not counting its many freight feeder lines around the major cities. The high-speed Tōkaidō Shinkansen largely parall ...

Gallery

Aerial Photo of Kanō Castle.jpg, Aerial Photo of Kanō Castle Kanou Castle Keep tower (SVG).svg, Design of the ''tenshu'' 加納城石垣.JPG, Surviving stone walls

References

Literature

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kano Castle Castles in Gifu Prefecture Buildings and structures in Gifu Historic Sites of Japan Ruined castles in Japan Mino Province

Structure

History

Gallery

See also

References

Literature