270px, Plan of Komoro Castle. The red square = Remains of Tenshukaku is 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 a ...

located in the city of Komoro, central

Nagano Prefecture is a Landlocked country, landlocked Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Nagano Prefecture has a population of 2,007,682 () and has a geographic area of . Nagano Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture ...

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 ...

. At the end of the

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 ...

, Komoro Castle was home to a junior 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 wer ...

, ''

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

Komoro Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan. It is located in Shinano Province, Honshū. The domain was centered at Komoro Castle, located in what is now part of the city of Komoro in Nagano Prefecture.Muromachi period The , also known as the , is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate ( or ), which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi ...

, the area which later became the city of Komoro was under the control of a local warlord, Oi Mitsutada, who built a fortification at the site of Komoro Castle. After the area came under the control of

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 ...

by 1554, the fortification was completely reconstructed into a castle under the direction of Shingen's master strategist Yamamoto Kansuke. Following the destruction of the Takeda clan by

Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese ''daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period, Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods. He was the and regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. He is sometimes referred as the "Demon Daimyō" and "Demo ...

in 1582, the castle was given to

Takigawa Kazumasu or Takikawa Sakon was a Japanese samurai lord and daimyo of the Sengoku period. He was a retainer and military commander of Oda Nobunaga, and later Toyotomi Hideyoshi. His biological son, Toshimasu, was adopted by Maeda Toshihisa, the older b ...

, one of Nobunaga's generals. After Nobunaga was assassinated in the

Honnō-ji incident The was the assassination of Japanese daimyo Oda Nobunaga at Honnō-ji, a temple in Kyoto, on 21 June 1582 (2nd day of the sixth month, Tenshō 10). Nobunaga was on the verge of unifying the country, but died in the unexpected rebellion of ...

, it came briefly under the control of the

Later Hōjō clan The was one of the most powerful samurai families in Japan in the Sengoku period and held domains primarily in the Kantō region. Their last name was simply , but were called "Later Hōjō" to differentiate between the earlier Hōjō clan who h ...

Odawara is a Cities of Japan, city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 188,482 and a population density of 1,700 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Odawara lies in the Ashigara Plains, in ...

. After 1590, following the Battle of Odawara, Komoro came under the control of

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 ...

, who assigned it to his general Sengoku Hidehisa as daimyō of

Komoro Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan. It is located in Shinano Province, Honshū. The domain was centered at Komoro Castle, located in what is now part of the city of Komoro in Nagano Prefecture.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 ...

'' holding later confirmed under 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 ...

. He reinforced the walls and reorganized the structure around a central bailey surrounded by a north and south bailey. He was followed by his son, Sengoku Tadamasa. Tadamasa improved the castle, and the three-story

Tenshukaku 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 ...

's foundation dates from this time. thumbnail, 250px, The foundation of the ''tench'' (Tenshukaku) The domain was transferred to the Hisamatsu branch of the

Matsudaira clan The was a Japanese samurai clan that descended from the Minamoto clan. It originated in and took its name from Matsudaira village, in Mikawa Province (modern-day Aichi Prefecture). During the Sengoku period, the chieftain of the main line of the ...

from 1624–1648. In 1626, the donjon was struck by lightning and burned down. It was never rebuilt. The domain and castle subsequently passed through a number of clans: the Aoyama from 1648-1662, the Sakai from 1662-1679, the Nishio from 1679–1682 and the Ishikawa clanfrom 1682–1702. In 1702, a junior branch of the Makino clan was awarded Komoro, and remained in control until the end of the

. The castle was damaged from flooding in 1742 ( ja). Following 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 ...

, Komoro Castle was abandoned, and in 1871 with the

abolition of the han system The in the Empire of Japan and its replacement by a system of prefectures in 1871 was the culmination of the Meiji Restoration begun in 1868, the starting year of the Meiji period. Under the reform, all daimyos (, ''daimyō'', feudal lords) ...

, most of its remaining structures were demolished or donated to nearby Buddhist temples and a merchant house.

Kaikoen

Currently, the castle's ruins are open to the public as Kaikoen (懐古園) which means the nostalgic park, along with two surviving gates, the Ōtemon (The fourth gate) and San-no-mon (The third gate), both of which have been declared Important Cultural Properties. The Ōtemon is one of the original structures from the early Edo period, and the San-no-mon was rebuilt in 1765 after the 1742 flood. In addition, two other gates survive at Buddhist temples within Komoro city and a portion of the central palace structure is in private hands in the city of Tōmi. Kaikoen is also famous for beautiful

cherry blossoms The cherry blossom, or sakura, is the flower of trees in ''Prunus'' subgenus '' Cerasus''. ''Sakura'' usually refers to flowers of ornamental cherry trees, such as cultivars of ''Prunus serrulata'', not trees grown for their fruit (although ...

and autumn leaves. The

Shinano Railway Line The is a railway line operated by the third-sector railway operating company Shinano Railway in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. It connects Karuizawa Station in Karuizawa with Shinonoi Station in Nagano. Overview Before October 1997, the right ...

cuts through the grounds of the castle, isolating the Ōtemon from the other remaining structures. Also located within the former castle grounds is an amusement park, a zoo which opened in 1926, and a museum dedicated to

Shimazaki Tōson Shimazaki (written: , or ) is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Aki Shimazaki (born 1954), Canadian writer and translator *, Japanese idol and singer *, Japanese speed skater *, Japanese volleyball player *, Japanese v ...

.Hometown Homepage - Komoro Places to Visit
Komoro Castle was listed as one of the

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

by the Japan Castle Foundation in 2006.

Literature

* *Takada, Tōru: Komoro-jo in: Miura, Masayuki (eds): ''Shiro to jin'ya. Tokoku-hen''. Gakken, 2006. , S. 100th *Nishigaya, Yasuhiro (eds): ''Komoro-jo. In: Nihon Meijo Zukan'', Rikogaku-sha, 1993. . * * * *

Notes

External links

Komoro Castle Jcastle Profile
{{Authority control Castles in Nagano Prefecture 100 Fine Castles of Japan Important Cultural Properties of Japan Important Cultural Properties of Nagano Prefecture