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

Kimitsu is a Cities of Japan, city located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 83,058 in 39,138 households and a population density of 260 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Overview The area along Tokyo ...

, southern

Chiba Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Chiba Prefecture has a population of 6,278,060 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Chiba Prefecture borders Ibaraki Prefecture to the north, Saitama ...

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 ...

, Kururi Castle was home to a branch of the

Kuroda clan The was a Japanese samurai clan which came to prominence during the Sengoku period. Origins The Kuroda clan claimed its origins in Tōtōmi Province. Sengoku period In the 16th century, the Kuroda clan was located in Harima Province. Und ...

, ''

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

Kururi Domain was a Han (Japan), feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Kazusa Province (modern-day central Chiba Prefecture), Japan. It was centered on Kururi Castle in what is now the city of Kimitsu, Chiba. History The ...

. The castle was also known as , after a legend that it rained twenty-one times during its construction, or, on average, once every three days. It is located on a 227 meter hill.

History

The original Kururi Castle was a mountain-top fortification built during the

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 ...

Takeda Nobunaga is a Japanese family name.1990 Census Name Files

(1401–1477), and was ruled by his descendants, the Mariyatsu

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 ...

, from 1540. With the expansion of the

Satomi clan The was a Japanese samurai clan of the Sengoku period (1467–1573) and early Edo period (1603–1868). The clan ruled Awa Province as a ''Sengoku daimyō'' and was a major military power in the Kantō region during the wars of the Nanboku-c ...

from Awa Province in the

Sengoku period The was the period in History of Japan, Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as th ...

, the castle was taken over by Satomi Yoshitaka, who used it as his base of operations against the

Hōjō clan The was a Japanese samurai family who controlled the hereditary title of '' shikken'' (regent) of the Kamakura shogunate between 1203 and 1333. Despite the title, in practice the family wielded actual political power in Japan during this perio ...

, based from

Odawara Castle is a reconstructed Japanese castle in the city of Odawara in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. The current donjon (keep) was constructed out of reinforced concrete in 1960 on a stone foundation of the former donjon, torn down from 1870–1872 ...

. The Hōjō attempted to take the castle unsuccessfully on a few occasions, and finally seized it in 1564. They lost it just three years later in 1567, when the Satomi regained control. Following the Battle of Odawara,

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: ...

punished the Satomi clan by depriving them of their territories in

Kazusa Province was a province of Japan in the area of modern Chiba Prefecture. The province was located in the middle of the Bōsō Peninsula, whose name takes its first ''kanji'' from the name of Awa Province and its second from Kazusa and Shimōsa province ...

. With the entry 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 ...

into 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 ...

, he assigned the fortifications at Kururi to one of his retainers, Matsudaira (Ōsuga) Tadamasa, and appointed him as ''

'' of the 30,000 ''

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 ...

. Osugi Tadamasa built most of the current fortifications of Kururi Castle, and established a

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, ...

at its base. Following the

Battle of Sekigahara The Battle of Sekigahara (Shinjitai: ; Kyūjitai: , Hepburn romanization: ''Sekigahara no Tatakai'') was an important battle in Japan which occurred on October 21, 1600 (Keichō 5, 15th day of the 9th month) in what is now Gifu Prefecture, ...

, the Ōsuga clan was transferred to Yokosuka Castle in

Suruga Province was an Provinces of Japan, old province in the area that is today the central part of Shizuoka Prefecture. Suruga bordered on Izu Province, Izu, Kai Province, Kai, Sagami Province, Sagami, Shinano Province, Shinano, and Tōtōmi Province, Tōtōm ...

, and were replaced by the

Tsuchiya clan is a Japanese samurai kin group. Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003)"Yūki," ''Nobiliare du Japon'', p. 66 retrieved 2013-5-17. History The Tsuchiya clan descend from ...

with a reduction in revenues to 20,000 ''koku''. The

domain A domain is a geographic area controlled by a single person or organization. Domain may also refer to: Law and human geography * Demesne, in English common law and other Medieval European contexts, lands directly managed by their holder rather ...

was suppressed in 1679, and Kururi Castle was allowed to fall into ruin. In 1742, Kururi Domain was reinstated, with

Kuroda Naozumi Kuroda (written: lit. "black ricefield") is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include: *, Japanese painter *, Japanese historian *Chris Kuroda, lighting designer and operator for the band Phish and Justin Bieber, among others *Em ...

transferred from

Numata Domain was a Han (Japan), feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Kōzuke Province (modern-day Gunma Prefecture), Japan. It was centered on Numata Castle in what is now the city of Numata, Gunma. History Following the ...

. He rebuilt the fortifications of the old castle, and his descendants continued to rule Kururi Domain 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 Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

. In 1872, by orders of 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 ...

, the surviving structures of Kururi Castle were destroyed. The area, containing remnants of moats, earthen works and a well, became a park in 1955. The current ''

donjon 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 residenc ...

'' was reconstructed in 1979 to boost local tourism. It was built adjacent to the earthen foundation of the original donjon. The Edo period donjon was a two-story, two-roofed structure; however the current structure is not historically accurate, and has three interior floors. The interior is a museum devoted primarily to local history exhibits.

Literature

* * * * *

External links

Kururi Castle - Jcastle Profile

Kururi Castle Municipal Museum site
(Japanese)

Notes

{{Commons category Castles in Chiba Prefecture Museums in Chiba Prefecture History museums in Japan Former castles in Japan Ruined castles in Japan Satomi clan