) was an

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 ...

flatland-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 what is now the center of the city of Jōetsu,

Niigata Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture in the Chūbu region of Honshu of Japan. Niigata Prefecture has a population of 2,131,009 (1 July 2023) and is the List of Japanese prefectures by area, fifth-largest prefecture of Japan by geographic area ...

in the

Hokuriku region The is located in the northwestern part of Honshu, the main island of Japan. It lies along the Sea of Japan and is part of the larger Chūbu region. It is almost equivalent to the former Koshi Province (Japan), Koshi Province and Hokurikudō are ...

Honshu , historically known as , is the largest of the four main islands of Japan. It lies between the Pacific Ocean (east) and the Sea of Japan (west). It is the list of islands by area, seventh-largest island in the world, and the list of islands by ...

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 ...

. Under 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 ...

, it was the centre of

Takada Domain , was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan. It was located in Echigo Province, in the Hokuriku region of Honshū. The domain was centered at Takada Castle, located in what is now part of the city of Jōetsu in Nii ...

Background

Takada Castle is located at the juncture of the Seki River and Yashiro River, and utilises a small height surrounded by the curving rivers as part of its outer moat. The castle is also located so as to control bottleneck in the main route between the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it ...

and 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 ...

to the east. Since the 14th century, this area was ruled by a branch of the Nagao clan, who were senior retainers of the

Uesugi Uesugi (jap. 上杉, sometimes written ''Uyesugi'') is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include: People *Uesugi clan, a Japanese samurai clan **Uesugi Akisada, (1454–1510), a samurai of the Uesugi clan ** Uesugi Harunori (1751� ...

under the Muromachi shogunate. The Nagao clan built nearby

Kasugayama Castle is a Sengoku period ''yamashiro''-style Japanese castle located in the Nakayashiki neighborhood of the city of Jōetsu, Niigata prefecture. It was the primary fortress of the warlord Uesugi Kenshin, and was originally built and ruled by the Nag ...

, and in the middle of 16th century,

Uesugi Kenshin , later known as , was a Japanese ''daimyō'' (magnate). He was born in Nagao clan, and after adoption into the Uesugi clan, ruled Echigo Province in the Sengoku period of Japan. He was one of the most powerful ''daimyō'' of the Sengoku period ...

(1530-1578) (formerly of the Nagao clan but who had succeeded to the chieftainship of the Uesugi clan) united

Echigo Province was an old provinces of Japan, old province in north-central Japan, on the shores of the Sea of Japan. It bordered on Uzen Province, Uzen, Iwashiro Province, Iwashiro, Kōzuke Province, Kōzuke, Shinano Province, Shinano, and Etchū Province, ...

under his rule. However, after his death, the clan was forced to submit to

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 were transferred to

Aizu is the westernmost of the three regions of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, the other two regions being Nakadōri in the central area of the prefecture and Hamadōri in the east. As of October 1, 2010, it had a population of 291,838. The princ ...

. Hideyoshi appointed the Hori Hideharu (1575-1606) as lord of Echigo, and he relocated from Kasugayama to Fukushima Castle in the port of Naoetsu. The Hori clan was deprived of is holdings in 1610 by

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 ...

soon after the start of the Tokugawa shogunate, and the domain were given to Ieyasu's sixth son,

Matsudaira Tadateru was a ''daimyō'' during the Edo period of Japan. He was the sixth son of Tokugawa Ieyasu. He was born in Edo Castle during the year of the dragon (''tatsu''), and as a child his name was Tatsuchiyo (辰千代). His mother was , a concubine of ...

. Matsudaira Tadateru was Ieyasu's son by a concubine, and had been sent away to be raised by retainers soon after his birth. He was appointed ''daimyō'' of Fukaya in Musashi in 1599, and was transferred to

Sakura Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Shimōsa Province (modern-day Chiba Prefecture), Japan. It was centered on Sakura Castle in what is now the city of Sakura, Chiba. It was ruled for most of its hist ...

in 1602, followed by Kawanakajima Domain in 1603. His appointment to Takada Domain came with 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 750,000 ''koku'', making the domain the second largest in Japan, and was intended to offset neighbouring Kanazawa Domain ruled by the ''tozama''

Maeda clan The was a Japanese samurai clan who occupied most of the Hokuriku region of central Honshū from the end of the Sengoku period through the Meiji Restoration of 1868. The Maeda claimed descent from the Sugawara clan through Sugawara no Kiyotom ...

. Although Fukushima Castle was well-designed and was conveniently close to the port at Naoetsu, Tadateru found that it was too small for his forces, and was also subject to frequent flooding. In 1614, he decided to build a completely new castle at a more inland location. During this time period, the relations between the Tokugawa shogunate and

Toyotomi Hideyori was the son and designated successor of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the general who united all of Japan toward the end of the Sengoku period. His mother, Yodo-dono, was the niece of Oda Nobunaga. Early life Born in 1593, he was Hideyoshi's sec ...

and his supporters based in

Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...

were rapidly approaching open war. Consequently, the shogunate could not afford either the time nor the money for a new castle at Takada. The shogunate ordered

Date Masamune was a Japanese ''daimyō'' during the Azuchi–Momoyama period through the early Edo period. Heir to a long line of powerful feudal lords in the Tōhoku region, he went on to found the modern-day city of Sendai. An outstanding tactician, he w ...

(who was also Tadateru's father-in-law) to organise the construction and 13 ''daimyō'' houses to contribute manpower and resources. These included

Maeda Toshitsune was an early-Edo period Japanese samurai, and the 2nd ''daimyō'' of Kaga Domain in the Hokuriku region of Japan, and the 3rd hereditary chieftain of the Maeda clan. Toshitsune was a brother of Maeda Toshinaga and a son of Maeda Toshiie. He ...

from Kanazawa Domain, and even the former warlord of Echigo,

Uesugi Kagekatsu was a Japanese samurai ''daimyō'' during the Sengoku and Edo periods. He was the adopted son of Uesugi Kenshin and Uesugi Kagetora’s brother in law. Early life and rise Kagekatsu was the son of Nagao Masakage, the head of the Ueda Naga ...

, who was now at

Yonezawa Yonezawa City Hall is a city in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 81,707 in 33,278 households, and a population density of 150 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Yonezawa is most famous for i ...

. Construction of the castle was begun on 15 March 1614 and was more or less completed only four months later. To save time and resources, only earthen ramparts were used, with no stone facing, and no ''

tenshu is an architectural typology found in Japanese castle, 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 cha ...

'' was constructed.

Structure

The completed castle measured 800 by 400 meters with a 220 x 230 meter

inner bailey The inner bailey or inner ward of a castle is the strongly fortified enclosure at the heart of a medieval castle.Friar, Stephen (2003). ''The Sutton Companion to Castles'', Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 2003, p. 22. It is protected by the outer ...

protected by moats and a clay wall. This bailey had two masugata-style gates and a three-story ''yagura'' in the southwestern corner, which served as its donjon. The inner bailey was surrounded by the second enclosure and there were smaller tertiary enclosures to the northeast and southwest, with a wide outer moat. Compared with its huge size, Takada Castle had a simple layout with only three ''yagura'', and was mainly protected by just a combination of moats and clay wall.

History

Tadateru did not have much time to enjoy his new castle. During the

Siege of Osaka A siege () . is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or by well-prepared assault. Siege warfare (also called siegecrafts or poliorcetics) is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict charact ...

in 1615, Tadateru had a falling out with his elder brother

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 Hidetada was the second ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa dynasty, who ruled from 1605 until his abdication in 1623. He was the third son of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Early life (1579–1593) Tokugawa Hidetada was born to Tokugawa Ieyasu and the Lady Saigō on May ...

, who regarded him as a potential rival Tadateru's position was also endangered by Tokugawa Ieyasu's lack of any familiar feelings for his sixth son, and by the fact that his more favoured younger brothers,

Tokugawa Yoshinao was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the early Edo period. Biography Born the ninth son of Tokugawa Ieyasu with his concubine, Okame no Kata. His childhood name was Gorōtamaru (五郎太丸). While still a young child, he was appointed leader ...

Tokugawa Yorinobu was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the early Edo period. Born under the name Nagatomimaru (長福丸), he was the 10th son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, by his concubine Kageyama-dono. On December 8, 1603, Yorinobu received the fief of Mito, then rated at 2 ...

and

Tokugawa Yorifusa , also known as Mito Yorifusa, was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the early Edo period. Biography Known in his childhood as Tsuruchiyomaru (鶴千代丸), he was the eleventh son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first Tokugawa shogun with his concubine, Ka ...

had come of age and had been granted large domains. Tadateru was disposed in 1616 and was confined to Takashima Castle in

Shinano Province or is an old province of Japan that is now Nagano Prefecture. Shinano bordered Echigo, Etchū, Hida, Kai, Kōzuke, Mikawa, Mino, Musashi, Suruga, and Tōtōmi Provinces. The ancient capital was located near modern-day Matsumoto, whi ...

until his death more than 50 years later. Takada Domain was considerably reduced in ''kokudaka'', and was assigned to a series of ''

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 ...

'', many of whom held the domain only for a short period and saw the position as only a stepping-stone to a better promotion. The domain came under the control of the

Sakakibara clan The was a Japanese samurai clan who rose to prominence during the Edo period under the Tokugawa shogunate.Alpert, Georges. (1888). Before the Meiji Restoration, the clan served as ''daimyō'' of Takada Domain in Echigo Province. The Sakakibara ...

in 1741, who ruled 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 ...

. Takada Castle was damaged by an earthquake in 1665 and again in 1751. In 1802, all of the castle burned down, except the gates and corner towers. Although the castle did not suffer any damage during the

Boshin War The , sometimes known as the Japanese Revolution or Japanese Civil War, was a civil war in Japan fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and a coalition seeking to seize political power in the name of the Impe ...

, the reconstructed ''daimyō'' palace and three-story ''yagura'' burned down in 1870. In 1872, per an edict by 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 remaining castle structures were dismantled, and the moats were filled in, with the eastern half of the castle grounds sold off and used as a school grounds. The central part of the castle became the base for the

Imperial Japanese Army The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA; , ''Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun'', "Army of the Greater Japanese Empire") was the principal ground force of the Empire of Japan from 1871 to 1945. It played a central role in Japan’s rapid modernization during th ...

's 13th Infantry Division. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the central and surviving western half of the castle grounds became Takeda Park, which was planted with over 4000

sakura The cherry blossom, or sakura, is the flower of trees in ''Prunus'' subgenus '' Cerasus''. ''Sakura'' usually refers to flowers of ornamental cherry trees, such as cultivars of ''Prunus serrulata'', not trees grown for their fruit (although ...

trees. In the context of the 20th anniversary celebrations of the city of Jōetsu (1991) it was decided that the corner ''yagura'' should be rebuilt in its original form, using old plans, the surviving moats and earthen ramparts repaired, and a bridge connecting the inner bailey with the Ni-no-maru secondary bailey was also restored. The castle was listed as one of the

Continued Top 100 Japanese Castles The is a list of 100 Japanese castle, castles, intended as a sequel of 100 Fine Castles of Japan. The castles were chosen for their significance in culture, history, and in their regions by the in 2017. Hokkaidō region Tōhoku region Kant ...

in 2017.

Bibliography

* * Ikeda Koichi, ''Takada-jo'' in: Miura Masayuki (Ed.), ''Shiro to jinya.'' Tokoku-hen. Gakken, 2006. . * Miyaji Saichiro (Ed.), ''Takada-jo'' in ''Bakumatsu shoshu saigo-no hanshu-tachi''. Higashinihon-hen. Jinbunsha, 1997. . * Niigata-ken no rekishi sampo henshu iinkai (Ed.): ''Niigata-ken no rekishi sampo.'' Yamakawa Shuppan, 2009. .

References

External links