Tateyama Castle (Yonezawa)
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was a
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 ...
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 city of
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 ...
, southern
Yamagata Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. It has a population of 1,005,926 (1 February 2025) and an area of 9,325 Square kilometre, km2 (3,600 Square mile, sq mi). Its neighbours are Akita Prefectu ...
,
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 site of the castle was designated a National Historic Site in 2016. The castle grounds are a 20 minutes walk from Nishi-Yonezawa Station on the
JR East The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are in ...
Yonesaka Line The is a railway line in Japan, operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East). It connects Yonezawa Station in Yamagata Prefecture to Sakamachi Station in Niigata Prefecture. At Yonezawa, connections to the Yamagata Shinkansen and Ōu Main ...
. It should not be confused with
Tateyama Castle is a Japanese castle located in Tateyama, Chiba, Tateyama, southern Chiba Prefecture, Japan. At the end of the Edo period, Tateyama Castle was home to the Inaba clan, ''daimyō'' of Tateyama Domain, but the castle is better known for its associati ...
in
Tateyama, Chiba is a Cities of Japan, city located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 44,865 in 20,558 households and a population density of 410 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Tateyama is locat ...
, whose name is written with slightly different ''
kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...
.''


Situation

Tateyama Castle is located on a small hill in the southwestern corner of the Yonezawa Basin of ancient
Dewa Province was a province of Japan comprising modern-day Yamagata Prefecture and Akita Prefecture, except for the city of Kazuno and the town of Kosaka. Dewa bordered on Mutsu and Echigō Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . History Early per ...
. The Yonezawa Basin measures approximately 30 by 10 kilometers and is surrounded by mountains on all sides making it a natural fortress. The castle location is also at the confluence of the Omono River and the Otaru River in the upper watershed of the
Mogami River The is a river in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. Description and history The river is 224 km long and has a watershed of 7,040 km2. It is regarded as one of the three most rapid rivers of Japan (along with the Fuji River and the Kuma R ...
, which also add to its natural defenses. The location is on the route to mountain passes to the
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 ...
region. The main bailey area is roughly triangular-shaped, with a length of 100 meters and maximum width of 50 meters, extending east-west. The western line of this triangle was protected by an earthen
rampart Rampart may refer to: * Rampart (fortification), a defensive wall or bank around a castle, fort or settlement Rampart may also refer to: * LAPD Rampart Division, a division of the Los Angeles Police Department ** Rampart scandal, a blanket ter ...
, 10 meters wide by five meters high, faced with stone. At the northern edge of this wall was the main gate, which was a ''Masugata''-style gate, also faced with stone walls. The secondary bailey was a square enclosure 50 meters long, which was also protected by the earthen rampart on its western side, and dry moats. Surrounding these areas were many smaller
enclosures Enclosure or inclosure is a term, used in English landownership, that refers to the appropriation of "waste" or "common land", enclosing it, and by doing so depriving commoners of their traditional rights of access and usage. Agreements to enc ...
, fortified by earthen ramparts, dry moats and watch towers, which served as the fortified residences of senior retainers.


History

Ōe no Hiromoto Ōe no Hiromoto (, 1148–1225) was a Japanese ''kuge'' (court noble) and vassal of the Kamakura shogunate, and contributed to establishing the shogunate's governmental structure. Life A great-grandson of the famous scholar Ōe no Masafusa ...
was one of
Minamoto no Yoritomo was the founder and the first shogun of the Kamakura shogunate, ruling from 1192 until 1199, also the first ruling shogun in the history of Japan.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Minamoto no Yoriie" in . He was the husband of Hōjō Masako ...
's senior councilors, and was awarded a ''
shōen A was a field or Manorialism, manor in Japan. The Japanese language, Japanese term comes from the Tang dynasty Chinese language, Chinese term "莊園" (Mandarin: ''zhuāngyuán'', Cantonese: ''zong1 jyun4''). Shōen, from about the 8th to th ...
'' in Dewa Province, which he gave to one of his younger sons. This son changed his name to "Nagai" after the name of the ''shōen''. The origins of Tateyama Castle are uncertain, but it appears to have been constructed by the
Nagai clan Nagai may refer to: *Nagai (surname), a Japanese surname *Nagai, Yamagata, a city in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan *An alternative name for Nagapattinam Nagapattinam (''nākappaṭṭinam'', previously spelt Nagapatnam or Negapatam) is a town in ...
during the
Kamakura period The is a period of History of Japan, Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the G ...
. The Nagai also built
Yonezawa Castle is a flatland-style Japanese castle located in the center of the city of Yonezawa, southern Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. Throughout the Edo period, Yonezawa Castle was home to the Uesugi clan, ''daimyō'' of Yonezawa Domain. History The first ...
, which was four kilometers east of Tateyama Castle as their administrative center. During the
Nanboku-chō period The , also known as the Northern and Southern Courts period, was a period in Japanese history between 1336-1392 CE, during the formative years of the Ashikaga shogunate, Muromachi (Ashikaga) shogunate. Ideologically, the two courts fought for 50 ...
, the Nagai supported the
Northern Court The , also known as the Ashikaga Pretenders or Northern Pretenders, were a set of six pretenders to the throne of Japan during the Nanboku-chō period from 1336 through 1392. Even though the present Imperial House of Japan is descended from the ...
, whereas the aggressive
Date clan The is a Japanese samurai kin group.Edmond Papinot, Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003)"Date", ''Nobiliare du Japon'', p. 5 retrieved 2013-5-5. History The Date fam ...
in the adjacent Fukushima Basin supported the
Southern Court The were a set of four emperors ( Emperor Go-Daigo and his line) whose claims to sovereignty during the Nanboku-chō period spanning from 1336 through 1392 were usurped by the Northern Court. This period ended with the Southern Court definitivel ...
. The Date invaded the Yonezawa Basin and destroyed the Nagai clan in 1385. 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 ...
, the Date were leaked by internal conflicts and wars with the Ashina clan and the
Mogami clan were Japanese ''daimyōs'', and were a branch of the Ashikaga family. In the Sengoku period, they were the Sengoku ''daimyōs'' who ruled Dewa Province which is now Yamagata Prefecture and part of Akita Prefecture. The Mogami clan is derived ...
, and transferred their seat from
Kōri-Nishiyama Castle was a Sengoku period Japanese castle located in what is now part of the town of Koori, northern Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. The site has been protected by the Japanese government as a National Historic Site since 1990. Background Kōri-Nishi ...
to Yonezawa. At this time, Tateyama Castle was repaired as a military stronghold and place of refuge in case of emergency as its location was far for defendable than that of Yonezawa Castle. In 1584,
Date Terumune was a Japanese samurai clan leader of the Sengoku period. Turnbull, Stephen. (2012) ''Samurai Commanders: 1577–1638,'' Vol, 2, p. 52 He had close relationship with Oda Nobunaga, one of the leading figures of the period. Terumune was the fathe ...
turned over the chieftainship of the Date clan to his son,
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 ...
, and retired to Tateyama Castle. However, after he was assassinated by the Nihonmatsu clan later that year. In 1589, Date Masamune finally defeated the Ashina, and moved his seat from Yonezawa to Kurokawa Castle in Aizu. Tateyama Castle retained its importance due to its location guarding the mountain passes between Yonezawa and Aizu. In 1591, after Date Masamune pledged fealty 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: ...
, he was forced to turnover both Yonezawa and Aizu to
Gamō Ujisato 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, and next managed Ise Province as lord of Matsusaka Castle and finally 920,000 koku in ...
. Ujisato ruled from
Aizuwakamatsu Castle , also known as Aizuwakamatsu Castle (会津若松城 ''Aizu-Wakamatsu-jō'') is a Japanese castle in northern Japan, at the center of the city of Aizuwakamatsu, in Fukushima Prefecture. Background Tsuruga Castle is located in the center of the ...
and modernized many castles around his domains, but Tateyama Castle does not appear to be one of them. Following his death in 1595, the Yonezawa portion of his territory was awarded to
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 ...
. After 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, ...
and 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 ...
, the
Uesugi clan The is a Japanese samurai clan which was at its peak one of the most powerful during the Muromachi period, Muromachi and Sengoku periods (14th to 17th centuries).Georges Appert, Appert, Georges. (1888) ''Ancien Japon,'' p. 79./ref> At its heigh ...
was reduced to only its holdings in Yonezawa. The Uesugi were conservative in outlook, and rebuilt Yonezawa Castle in an almost archaic style with earthen walls; however, as they were surrounded by hostile neighbors, some effort was made to remodel Tateyama Castle with stone walls. In 1615, the Tokugawa shogunate proclaimed the "One Country - One Castle" policy and forbid the ''
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 ...
'' to keep multiple strongholds in their domains. The newly reconstructed stone walls of Tateyama Castle were thrown down and the castle was abandoned. The site was excavated from 2011 to 2015 by the Yonezawa City Board of Education.


See also

*
List of Historic Sites of Japan (Yamagata) This list is of the Historic Sites of Japan located within the Prefecture of Yamagata. National Historic Sites As of 1 December 2022, thirty-one Sites have been designated as being of national significance, including the Dewa Sendai Kaidō N ...


Literature

* * *


References


External links


Yonezawa city home page
{{in lang, ja Castles in Yamagata Prefecture Ruined castles in Japan Historic Sites of Japan Yonezawa, Yamagata Dewa Province Archaeological sites in Japan