thumbnail, 260px, layout of Minakuchi Castle thumbnail, 260px, Another view of the ''yagura'' , is a ''hirashiro''-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 ...

located in the former town of Minakuchi, in the city of

Kōka was a after ''Tenpō'' and before '' Kaei.'' This period spanned the years from December 1844 through February 1848. The reigning emperors were and . Change of era * December 2, 1844 (): The new era name of ''Kōka'', meaning "Becoming Wid ...

Shiga Prefecture is a landlocked prefecture of Japan in the Kansai region of Honshu. Shiga Prefecture has a population of 1,398,972 as of 1 February 2025 and has a geographic area of . Shiga Prefecture borders Fukui Prefecture to the north, Gifu Prefecture to th ...

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 ...

. The castle is also known as Hekisui Castle

Overview

Minakuchi Castle is located on the old 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

Edo Edo (), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the '' de facto'' capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogu ...

and the provinces of eastern Japan. This was the most important highway in

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 ...

Japan, and in the early

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 ...

, a system of official post stations on the Tōkaidō was formalized by 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 ...

in 1601. One such station was

Minakuchi-juku 260px, Modern Minakuchi-juku 260px, Minakuchi-juku in 1923 was the fiftieth of the fifty-three stations of the Tōkaidō highway connecting Edo with Kyoto in Edo period Japan. It was located in the Minakuchi neighborhood of the present-day c ...

, with one ''

honjin image:Ohara-juku01s3200.jpg, The ''honjin'' at Inaba Kaidō's Ōhara-shuku. is the Japanese word for an inn for government officials, generally located in post stations (''shukuba'') during the later part of the Edo period. Evolution of ''Honjin ...

'', one ''waki-honjin'', and 41 ''

hatago were Edo period lodgings for travelers at ''shukuba'' (post stations) along the national highways, including the Edo Five Routes and the subroutes. In addition to a place to rest, ''hatago'' also offered meals and other foods to the travelers. ...

'', one ''Tonyaba'', for the stabling of packhorses and warehousing of goods, and one '' kōsatsu'' for the display of official notifications.It was used by many western ''

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 ...

'' on ''

sankin-kōtai ''Sankin-kōtai'' (, now commonly written as ) was a policy of the Tokugawa shogunate during most of the Edo period, created to control the daimyo, the feudal lords of Japan, politically, and to keep them from attempting to overthrow the regi ...

'' route to-and-from the Shogun's court in Edo. However, in 1634, when

Shogun , officially , was the title of the military aristocracy, rulers of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor of Japan, Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, exc ...

Tokugawa Iemitsu was the third ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate, Tokugawa dynasty. He was the eldest son of Tokugawa Hidetada with Oeyo, and the grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Lady Kasuga was his wet nurse, who acted as his political adviser and was at the ...

decided to travel to Kyoto to meet the Emperor, an issue arose on where he would spend the night. Almost all of the route of the highway was either controlled directly by the shogunate or by trusted ''

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 ...

'', at whose castle's the Shogun could stay. However, in the portion of the route in southern

Ōmi Province was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan, which today comprises Shiga Prefecture. It was one of the provinces that made up the Tōsandō Circuit (subnational entity), circuit. Its nickname is . Under the ''Engishiki'' classification system, ...

, after the abolition of Minakuchi Okayama Castle, there was no suitable accommodation. The distance from Suzuka Pass to

Hikone Castle is an Edo-period Japanese castle located in the city of Hikone, Shiga Prefecture, Japan. It is considered the most significant historical site in Shiga. The site has been protected as a National Historic Site since 1951. Hikone is one of only ...

or Zeze Castle was too great for a single day, and it was unthinkable from a prestige and from a security standpoint for the Shogun to stay in the same

that was used by ordinary ''daimyō''. The solution was to construct a new

adjacent to Minaguchi-juku.

Layout

The castle was patterned after the design of Nijō-jō in Kyoto. The central bailey is 150 meters square, surrounded by a moat. On the middle of the eastern side is a 20 meter square protrusion, which housed the composite gate. The sides of the enclosure were protected by stone walls, and there was a yagura watchtower at each corner. The one facing the highway was larger and was two-story; the others were single-story. The gardens were designed by Kobori Gonjūrō, son of the famed garden designer Kobori Enshū.

History

This castle was actually used as a lodge for one night for Tokugawa Iemitsu’s visit to Kyoto in 1634, but was never used after that. In 1682, the shogunate created

Minakuchi Domain was a ''Fudai daimyō, Fudai'' Han (Japan), feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan. It was located in southeastern Ōmi Province, in the Kansai region of central Honshu. The domain was centered at Minakuchi Castle, loca ...

for the Katō clan, and transferred control of the castle to the new domain.

Katō Yoshiaki was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the late Sengoku period to early Edo period; he served as lord of the Aizu Domain. As a retainer of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Katō fought in the battle of Shizugatake in 1583 and soon became known as one of the ''shich ...

had been one of the most powerful generals under

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: ...

and later under

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 ...

, and had been awarded with

Aizu Domain was a Han (Japan), domain of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1601 to 1871.Ravina, Mark. (1998) ''Land and Lordship in Early Modern Japan,'' p. 222 The Aizu Domain was based at Aizuwakamatsu Castle, Tsuruga Castle in M ...

. His son, Katō Akinari initially had a ''

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. 5 ...

'' of 400,000 ''koku'', but through a combination of mismanagement, natural disasters and political intrigue, had been demoted and reassigned to a 10,000 ''koku''

smallholding A smallholding or smallholder is a small farm operating under a small-scale agriculture model. Definitions vary widely for what constitutes a smallholder or small-scale farm, including factors such as size, food production technique or technolo ...

in remote

Iwami Province was an old province of Japan in the area that is today the western part of Shimane Prefecture. It was sometimes called . Iwami bordered Aki, Bingo, Izumo, Nagato, and Suō provinces. In the Heian period (794–1192) the capital was at moder ...

. His son, Kato Akitomo had managed to increase this to 20,000 ''koku'' and was rewarded with the creation of Minakuchi Domain. The Katō clan ruled the area (with a brief exception) to the end of the Edo Period. They kept the shogun's palace in repair, in the event that he should ever chose to return, but lived in a secondary area at the northwest of the castle. 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 ...

, the castle was destroyed and its buildings were sold off. The site of the castle was used as a baseball field and parking lot for Minakuchi High School. However, in 1991 some walls, two gates, and a ''yagura'' were reconstructed. This reconstructed ''yagura'' houses the . The castle is a five minutes walk from Minakuchi Jonan Station on the Ohmi Railway Main Line.

Literature

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External links

*{{Commons category-inline
Shiga-Biwako Visitors GuideKoka City official home page
Castles in Shiga Prefecture Museums in Shiga Prefecture History museums in Japan Kōka, Shiga Designated historic sites of Shiga Prefecture