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 Saga City,

Saga Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyushu. Saga Prefecture has a population of roughly 780,000 and has a geographic area of . Saga Prefecture borders Fukuoka Prefecture to the northeast and Nagasaki Prefect ...

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 ...

. It is a ''hiraijirō'', a castle built on a plains rather than a hill or mountain, and is surrounded by a wall rather than being built above a stone base. Saga castle was home to the Nabeshima clan, ''

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 Saga Domain. It was also known as .

History

The location of Saga Castle was originally a fortified village under the control of the

Ryūzōji clan was a Japanese kin group which traces its origin to Hizen Province on the island of Kyushu. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"Hōki"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 802. History The clan was founded by Fujiwara no Suekiyo in 1186. The clan was a ...

, warlords of a small area of northern

Kyūshū is the third-largest island of Japan's four main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands (i.e. excluding Okinawa and the other Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Islands). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regio ...

in 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 ...

. After Ryūzōji Takanobu was defeated by a coalition of Shimazu and

Arima Arima, officially The Royal Chartered Borough of Arima is the easternmost and second largest in area of the three boroughs of Trinidad and Tobago. It is geographically adjacent to Sangre Grande and Arouca at the south central foothills of the ...

forces in 1584, his retainer Nabeshima Naoshige gained control of the castle. Naoshige allied the clan with

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 gained personal distinction during the Japanese invasions of Korea, during which time he befriended noted castle architect

Katō Kiyomasa was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the Azuchi–Momoyama period, Azuchi–Momoyama and Edo periods. His court title was . His name as a child was ''Yashamaru'', and first name was ''Toranosuke''. He was one of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Hideyoshi's Seven ...

and future

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

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 ...

. 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 Nabeshima clan was confirmed in its holdings in

Hizen province was an old provinces of Japan, old province of Japan in the area of the Saga Prefecture, Saga and Nagasaki Prefecture, Nagasaki prefectures. It was sometimes called , with Higo Province. Hizen bordered on the provinces of Chikuzen Province, Ch ...

, and Naoshige’s son, Nabeshima Katsushige became 1st ''daimyō'' of Saga Domain. Naoshige began work on rebuilding the castle with the approval of 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 ...

beginning in 1602, with the work completed under Katsushige by 1611. The original structure included a five-storey

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 ...

surrounded by a system of 80-metre wide

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch dug around a castle, fortification, building, or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. Moats can be dry or filled with water. In some places, moats evolved into more extensive water d ...

s. Unusually, the moats are not surmounted by stone walls, but by earthen ramparts tall enough to conceal the inner fortifications. These ramparts were also planted with pine and camphor trees for additional concealment, which lent the castle its nickname. Saga castle

A fire in 1726 destroyed most of the castle structures, including the donjon. The palace portion was restored two years later in the outer bailey, which was the centre of the Saga domain government for most of the Edo period. Another fire occurred in 1835, after which the buildings were reconstructed by Saga domain’s final ''daimyō''

Nabeshima Naomasa was the 10th and final ''daimyō'' of Saga Domain in Hizen Province, Kyūshū, Japan. His honorary title was '' Hizen-no-Kami'', and he was occasionally referred to as “Prince Hizen” in western accounts during the Bakumatsu period. Biogra ...

. 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 remained the location for the local government offices. However, the castle was occupied in 1874 by former politician and samurai Etō Shinpei and his following of disgruntled ''

samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

'' in the

Saga Rebellion The was an 1874 uprising in Kyūshū against the new Meiji government of Japan.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Saga no ran" in . It was led by Etō Shinpei and Shima Yoshitake in their native domain of Hizen province, Hizen. Background Fo ...

. The rebels were defeated by military force, during which most of the buildings in the castle were burned down. Since 1874, the castle grounds have been used as the site for a court building and a prefectural office, and in 1883 it became a junior school. The buildings were eventually replaced by modern school buildings. In 1953, one of the surviving gates of the castle was proclaimed a Saga Prefectural Important Cultural Property (PICP). It gained national protection (ICP) in 1957. From 2001 to 2004 the main portion of the castle was restored. It is now houses the Saga Castle History Museum and is the largest wooden castle reconstruction in Japan. In 2006, Saga Castle was listed as one of the 100 Fine Castles of Japan by the Japan Castle Foundation. Saga Castle is also the castle where Yamamoto Tsunetomo, the

orator An orator, or oratist, is a public speaker, especially one who is eloquent or skilled. Etymology Recorded in English c. 1374, with a meaning of "one who pleads or argues for a cause", from Anglo-French ''oratour'', Old French ''orateur'' (14 ...

of ''

Hagakure ''Hagakure'' (Kyūjitai: ; Shinjitai: ; meaning ''Hidden by the Leaves'' or ''Hidden Leaves''), or , is a practical and spiritual guide for a warrior, drawn from a collection of commentaries by the clerk Yamamoto Tsunetomo, former retainer to ...

,'' worked.

Literature

* * * * *

External links

Saga Castle History Museum

{{Authority control 100 Fine Castles of Japan Castles in Saga Prefecture Museums in Saga Prefecture History museums in Japan Ryūzōji clan

History

See also

Literature

External links