was 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, suc ...

(now in ruins) located in the city of Matsusaka,

Mie Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Mie Prefecture has a population of 1,781,948 () and has a geographic area of . Mie Prefecture is bordered by Gifu Prefecture to the north, Shiga Prefecture and Kyoto Prefecture ...

, Japan. Throughout most 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 ...

, Matsusaka Castle was a secondary administrative center for the

Kishu-Tokugawa clan The , also called simply , or even , were the most noble three branches of the Tokugawa clan of Japan: Owari, Kii, and Mito, all of which were descended from clan founder Tokugawa Ieyasu's three youngest sons, Yoshinao, Yorinobu, and Yorifu ...

, ''

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 ...

'' of

Kishū Domain , or , was a province of Japan in the part of Honshū that is today Wakayama Prefecture, as well as the southern part of Mie Prefecture. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Kii''" in . Kii bordered Ise, Izumi, Kawachi, Shima, and Yamato ...

. It has been protected as a National Historic Site since 2011.

Background

Matsusaka Castle is located on the west coast of

Ise Bay is a bay located at the mouth of the Kiso Three Rivers between Mie and Aichi Prefectures in Japan. Ise Bay has an average depth of and a maximum depth of . The mouth of the bay is and is connected to the smaller Mikawa Bay by two channels: ...

, in the center of former Ise Province. In addition to the nearby seaport, the castle dominated a land communication junction, where five roads leading to Iga,

Yamato Province was a province of Japan, located in Kinai, corresponding to present-day Nara Prefecture in Honshū. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric (2005). "Yamato" in . It was also called . Yamato consists of two characters, 大 "great", and 和 " Wa". At first, ...

Yamato, and

Kii Province , or , was a province of Japan in the part of Honshū that is today Wakayama Prefecture, as well as the southern part of Mie Prefecture. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Kii''" in . Kii bordered Ise, Izumi, Kawachi, Shima, and Yamato ...

and the road to

Ise Shrine The , located in Ise, Mie Prefecture of Japan, is a Shinto shrine dedicated to the sun goddess Amaterasu. Officially known simply as , Ise Jingū is a shrine complex composed of many Shinto shrines centered on two main shrines, and . The Inn ...

converged. 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, ...

of Matsusaka prospered by trading, and merchants of Matsusaka were known for their activities nationwide. The founder of

Mitsui is one of the largest ''keiretsu'' in Japan and one of the largest corporate groups in the world. The major companies of the group include Mitsui & Co. (general trading company), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Nippon Paper Industries ...

, one of modern Japan's largest commercial enterprises was born in Matsuzaka. The castle itself is built on a wedge-shaped hill facing eastward and consists of three layers of terraces. The Honmaru (central bailey) at the top of the hill is a square and held a three-story five-floor ''

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 ...

'' tower with gold roof tiles on its western side, and a ''yagura'' watchtower on its eastern side. The middle enclosure also had a large ''yagura'' tower, which overlooked the lowest layer of defenses, which was divided into several smaller '' kuruwa''. The core area of the castle is relatively small, measuring roughly 200 meters square, but unusually for the time, most of the walls on all of the enclosures are faced with stone.

History

During the

Muromachi period The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by ...

, the area of Matsuzawa was denominated by the

Kitabatake clan The Kitabatake clan was a clan that ruled south Ise Province in Japan and had strong ties to the eastern provinces through Pacific sea routes. Among its leaders included Kitabatake Tomonori. Clan heads # Kitabatake Masaie (1215–1274, founder) ...

, who were strong supporters of

Emperor Go-Daigo Emperor Go-Daigo (後醍醐天皇 ''Go-Daigo-tennō'') (26 November 1288 – 19 September 1339) was the 96th emperor of Japan, Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'')後醍醐天皇 (96) retrieved 2013-8-28. according to the traditional order ...

and the Southern Court. However, during the

Sengoku period The was a period in Japanese history of near-constant civil war and social upheaval from 1467 to 1615. The Sengoku period was initiated by the Ōnin War in 1467 which collapsed the feudal system of Japan under the Ashikaga shogunate. Variou ...

, they were defeated by

Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese '' daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period. He is regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. Nobunaga was head of the very powerful Oda clan, and launched a war against other ''daimyō'' to unif ...

, who installed his son,

Oda Nobukatsu was a Japanese samurai of the Azuchi–Momoyama period. He was the second son of Oda Nobunaga. He survived the decline of the Oda clan from political prominence, becoming a ''daimyō'' in the early Edo period. Though often described as an inco ...

as governor of Ise Province. Oda Nobukatsu initially resided at Tamaru Castle, located ten kilometers south of Matsuzaka, and later relocated to Matsugashima Castle, directly on the Matsuzaka coastline After the assassination of Oda Nobunaga in 1582, Ise was invaded by the army of

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

, who installed his general

Gamō Ujisato or Gamō Yasuhide was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the Sengoku and Azuchi–Momoyama periods. He was heir and son of Gamō Katahide, lord of Hino Castle in Ōmi Province, he later held Matsusaka ( Ise Province) and finally Aizuwakamatsu Castle in ...

at Matsugashima as ''

'' of a 123,000 '' koku'' domain. Matsugashima Castle was in a cramped location which did not permit any expansion and was hard to defend, and the existing structures were suffering from salt damage due to their proximity to the coast, so Ujisato relocated his seat further inland, to the current site of Matsusaka Castle. Construction was completed in a very short time, partly through the destruction of local

Buddhist temples A Buddhist temple or Buddhist monastery is the place of worship for Buddhists, the followers of Buddhism. They include the structures called vihara, chaitya, stupa, wat and pagoda in different regions and languages. Temples in Buddhism represen ...

and an ancient '' kofun'' burial mound, to use the stones in the construction of the defensive walls. The inhabitants of Matsugashima were forcibly resettled at the new castle town, and merchants were invited from the Gamō’s former domain in Omi Province. The completed castle had two concentric moats, and a three-roof/five-story ''

'' (

donjon A keep (from the Middle English ''kype'') 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 ...

). In 1590, after the Battle of Odawara, the Gamō clan was rewarded with a transfer to Aizu-Wakamatsu (600,000 ''koku''). Matsusaka Castle was given to a Toyotomi retainer,

Hattori Kazutada was a samurai during Sengoku period in Japan. He was also known as Hattori Koheita (服部小平太) and Hattori Unemenokami (服部采女正). Kazutada was born in Owari Province in central Japan. He started out as a page to Oda Nobunaga and ...

. In 1595, the Hattori were purged by Hideyoshi, together with

Toyotomi Hidetsugu was a daimyō during the Sengoku period of Japan. He was the nephew and retainer of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the unifier and ruler of Japan from 1590 to 1598. Despite being Hideyoshi's closest adult, male relative, Hidetsugu was accused of atrociti ...

and the domain was given to

Furuta Shigekatsu was a Japanese samurai of the Sengoku period of Japan. He fought under Toyotomi Hideyoshi at the Siege of Odawara Castle and in the Bunroku Campaign in Korea (1592–1593). As a reward for his efforts, he received Matsuzaka (37,000 ''koku'') i ...

, with a much-reduced revenue base of 34,000 ''koku''. The castle survived an attack by the forces of

Ishida Mitsunari Ishida Mitsunari (, 1559 – November 6, 1600) was a Japanese samurai and military commander of the late Sengoku period of Japan. He is probably best remembered as the commander of the Western army in the Battle of Sekigahara following the ...

shortly before the decisive

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 Furuta clan was re-confirmed in itsholdings and its ''

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. ...

'' increased to 54,000 ''koku'' by 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 ...

. In 1619, the Furuta clan was transferred to Hamada in Iwami Province, and Matsusaka Domain was abolished, with its territories incorporated into the holdings of the

, based in Wakayama. Despite the official policy of “one country-one castle”, the existing fortifications at Matsusaka were not destroyed, but were retained as an administrative center for the domain’s 179,000 ''koku'' holdings in southern Ise Province. However, in 1644, the ''tenshu'' tower was destroyed by a

typhoon A typhoon is a mature tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere. This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, and is the most active tropical cyclone basin on Earth, accounting for a ...

, and was not rebuilt. In 1794, a ''

jin'ya A was a type of administrative headquarters in the Tokugawa Shogunate during the Edo period of Japanese history. ''Jin'ya'' served as the seat of the administration for a small domain, a province, or additional parcels of land. ''Jin'ya'' hous ...

'' fortified residence was built. The Kishu-Tokugawa clan retained the territory 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 r ...

. In 1877, a fire destroyed the palace within the second bailey, and in 1881 all of the remaining castle buildings were pulled down, with the exception of a single rice warehouse.

Present situation

Although few structures now remain of the original castle, the site is open to the public as a park and the stone walls are in good preservation. In 1982, a proposal to reconstruct the ''tenshu'' was vetoed due to local opposition. From 1988-2003, the moats and stonework underwent a massive repair and reconstruction process. During this time, it was discovered that much of the stonework was in the same style as Azuchi Castle. The castle grounds also hold the modern Matsusaka city hall, city hospital, a local history museum and the Motoori Norinaga Memorial Hall. The castle site is a 15-minute walk from Matsusaka Station The ruins were listed as one of the 100 Fine Castles of Japan by the Japan Castle Foundation in 2006. Japan Castle Foundation
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Gallery

Matsusaka Castle, Tenshudai.jpg, Foundation base for the ''Tenshu'' Matsusaka Castle, Honmaru.jpg, Main Bailey 松坂城4.jpg, Kitai Enclosure 松坂城5.jpg, Memorial Stele Matsusaka Castle, Uramon.jpg, Rear Gate 松坂城6.jpg, Official's residence

Literature

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External links

Matsusaka Castle Jcastle ProfileMie Tourist InformationPhotos of Japanese castles

Notes

{{100 Fine Castles of Japan Castles in Mie Prefecture 100 Fine Castles of Japan Historic Sites of Japan Ise Province Ruined castles in Japan