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

Tahara Tahara may refer to: Religion * Tumah and taharah, the state of being ritually impure and pure in Judaism ** Tohorot, the sixth and last order of the Mishnah ** Tahara, a stage of bereavement in Judaism * Taharah, the aspect of ritual purity in Is ...

, southern

Aichi Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Aichi Prefecture has a population of 7,461,111 () and a geographic area of with a population density of . Aichi Prefecture borders Mie Prefecture to the ...

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 ...

, Tahara Castle was home to the Miyake 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 the 12,000 ''

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 ...

Tahara Domain was a minor ''fudai'' Japanese Han system, domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in southern Mikawa Province (modern-day southeastern Aichi Prefecture), Japan. It was centered on Tahara Castle in what is now the city ...

History

Tahara Castle is located on a small hill in the city of Tahara, near the root of the

Atsumi Peninsula The is a peninsula in southern Aichi Prefecture, central Honshū, Japan. Geography It has an approximate length of east-west, separating Mikawa Bay (to the north) from the Pacific Ocean to the south, with Ise Bay lying to its west. It fa ...

extending into

Mikawa Bay Mikawa Bay (Landsat photo) Mikawa Bay (三河湾 ''Mikawa-wan'') is a bay to the south of Aichi Prefecture, Japan, surrounded by Chita Peninsula The Chita Peninsula (知多半島 ''Chita Hantō'') is a peninsula to the south of Aichi Prefect ...

. The location was formerly surrounded by inlets, which enhanced its defensive position, and its ability to extend control over shipping in the area. In 1480, Toda Munemitsu (1439–1508), virtually independent warlord of the Atsumi Peninsula during 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 ...

, erected the predecessor of Tahara Castle. Threatened by the growing power 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 ...

under

Matsudaira Kiyoyasu was the 7th lord over the Matsudaira clan during the Sengoku period (16th century) of Japan. Kiyoyasu was the paternal grandfather of the third "great unifier of Japan", Tokugawa Ieyasu. Biography Kiyoyasu gained control of the whole of northe ...

to the north, the Toda pledged loyalty to the powerful

Imagawa clan was a Japanese samurai clan that claimed descent from the Seiwa Genji by way of the Kawachi Genji. It was a branch of the Minamoto clan by the Ashikaga clan. Origins Ashikaga Kuniuji, grandson of Ashikaga Yoshiuji, established himself in ...

based in Suruga. When

Matsudaira Hirotada was the lord of Okazaki Castle in Mikawa province, Japan during the Sengoku Period of the 16th century. He is best known for being the father of Tokugawa Ieyasu, founder of the Tokugawa shogunate. Biography Hirotada was the son of Matsudaira ...

was forced to send his son, the future

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 ...

to Sunpu as a hostage to the Imagawa, he turned to the Toda clan for assistance, but the Toda sent Ieyasu as a hostage to

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 ...

instead, in exchange for a monetary payment. The outraged Imagawa attacked and captured Tahara Castle in 1550. After the defeat of the Imagawa at the

Battle of Okehazama The took place on 12 June 1560 in Owari Province, in today's Aichi Prefecture. In this battle, the heavily outnumbered Oda clan troops, commanded by Oda Nobunaga, defeated Imagawa Yoshimoto and established Oda as one of the front-running warlo ...

10 years later, Tahara Castle came under the control of the Tokugawa, who used it as a subsidiary fortification to Toyohashi Castle. From 1565 to 1595,

Honda Hirotaka was a Japanese samurai of the Sengoku period through Azuchi-Momoyama period, who served the Tokugawa clan The is a Japanese dynasty which produced the Tokugawa shoguns who ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868 during the Edo period. It was former ...

and Honda Yasushige served as castellans. Following the Battle of Odawara in 1590,

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: ...

assigned 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 ...

and the Toda were dispossessed of their holdings, which were given to Hideyoshi's vassal, Igi Tadatsugu, who rebuilt the moats and stonework. Following the establishment 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 ...

, Toda Katatsugu was raised back from ''

hatamoto A was a high ranking samurai in the direct service of the Tokugawa shogunate of feudal Japan. While all three of the Shōgun, shogunates in History of Japan, Japanese history had official retainers, in the two preceding ones, they were referred ...

'' status to a 10,000 ''koku'' ''

,'' and allowed to return to Tahara Castle, which was now the administrative center of the newly created Tahara

feudal domain A demesne ( ) or domain was all the land retained and managed by a lord of the manor under the feudal system for his own use, occupation, or support. This distinguished it from land sub-enfeoffed by him to others as sub-tenants. In contrast, th ...

in 1601. In 1664, his son

Toda Tadamasa was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the early Edo period. He served in a variety of positions in the Tokugawa shogunate, including rōjū The , usually translated as ''Elder (administrative title), Elder'', was one of the highest-ranking government p ...

was transferred to Amakusa Domain in

Bungo Province was a province of Japan in the area of eastern Kyūshū, corresponding to most of modern Ōita Prefecture, except what is now the cities of Nakatsu and Usa. Bungo bordered on Hyūga to the south, Higo and Chikugo to the west, and Chikuze ...

with an increase in revenues to 21,000 ''koku'' and Tahara Domain was reassigned to the Miyake clan, who remained in residence 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 ...

. Little remains of the original castle aside from portions of the moats and stonework, as all castle buildings were destroyed in 1872 in accordance with the new

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 ...

. Within the central keep of the former castle is a

Shinto shrine A Stuart D. B. Picken, 1994. p. xxiii is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more kami, , the deities of the Shinto religion. The Also called the . is where a shrine's patron is or are enshrined.Iwanami Japanese dic ...

to the ancestors of the Miyake clan, and another dedicated to the famed local scholar

Watanabe Kazan was a Japanese painter, scholar and statesman member of the samurai class. Biography He was born Watanabe Sadayasu in Edo (now Tokyo) to a poor samurai family, and his artistic talent was developed from an early age. His family served the ...

, as well as the local Tahara City Museum. When the Tahara City Museum was reconstructed in 1990, a faux ''yagura'' and gate were reconstructed.

Literature

* * * * *

External links

JNTO home page

Photos of Tateyama Castle
* {{OSM relation, 6897266 Castles in Aichi Prefecture History of Aichi Prefecture Buildings and structures in Tahara, Aichi Mikawa Province