270px, Aerial view of Uwajima Castle is a ''hirayama-jiro''

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 city of Uwajima, Ehime,

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 ...

. An alternate name for this castle is Tsurushima-jō. The castle is one of twelve Japanese castles to still have its historical ''

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 ...

''. Its has been protected as a National Historic Site since 1937.

History

Uwajima Castle is located on a hill at the center of the city of Uwajima in southern part of former

Iyo Province was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan in the area of northwestern Shikoku.Louis-Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Tosa''" in . Iyo bordered on Sanuki Province to the northeast, Awa Province (Tokushima), Awa to the east ...

. It was originally built on the seashore, with the ocean forming a natural moat on three sides; however, due to

land reclamation Land reclamation, often known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new Terrestrial ecoregion, land from oceans, list of seas, seas, Stream bed, riverbeds or lake ...

it is now in the center of the city. During the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

, Uwajima (notably the island of Hiburijima in Uwajima Bay) was center of piracy in the

Seto Inland Sea The , sometimes shortened to the Inland Sea, is the body of water separating Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu, three of the four main islands of Japan. It serves as a waterway connecting the Pacific Ocean to the Sea of Japan. It connects to Osaka Ba ...

and became the stronghold of Fujiwara no Sumitomo in his rebellion. In 941 Tachibana Tachibana, a guard envoy, set up a fort in this area when suppressing the rebellion, and named the fortification "Itashima Marugushi Castle". During 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 ...

, a branch of the Saionji family was appointed as governor of the area by the Ashikaga shogunate, but was constantly being invaded his more powerful and aggressive neighbors. The Saionji survived by the fluid loyalties and fierce resistance, but were eventually overcome by

Chōsokabe Motochika was a prominent ''daimyō'' in Japanese Sengoku period, Sengoku-period. He was the 21st chief of the Chōsokabe clan of Tosa Province (present-day Kōchi Prefecture), the ruler of Shikoku, Shikoku region. Early life and rise He was the son and ...

, who was in turn overthrown by the forces of

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: ...

. Iyo Province was given to Kobayakawa Takakage, who assigned the area around Uwajima to his adopted son and half-brother, Hidekane. Takakage was later transferred to

Kyushu is the third-largest island of Japan's Japanese archipelago, four main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands (i.e. excluding Okinawa Island, Okinawa and the other Ryukyu Islands, Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Ryukyu Islands, Islands ...

and was replaced by Hideyoshi's general Toda Katsutaka, who expanded on the minor fortification, transforming it into 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 ...

castle. Toda, who ruled with extreme harshness, went insane and died during the invasion of Korea without heir. Hideyoshi then assigned Tōdō Takatora to the domain. A noted castle designer, Takatora spent six years re-building the castle, starting in 1601. In 1604 he moved the ''

'' of Kagomori Castle to Uwajima Castle and made it the castle's Tsukimi Yagura. Tōdō Takatora retained the original layout of the castle, which had an oblong inner bailey measuring 30 by 100 meters, with the ''

'' in the center of the southern portion. He added stone walls and expanded on the surrounding secondary enclosures, adding fortified gate and water moats. The castle was noteworthy in the use of an innovative pentagonal layout of moats and walls, which made it difficult for attackers to attack any one side without having blind spots to their flanks. 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 ...

, Uwajima Domain was assigned to Date Hidemune, the eldest son of

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 head of a cadet branch of the

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 ...

. The castle was renamed Uwajima Castle around 1617. The castle was severely damage due to an earthquake in 1649. Major repairs and expansion began in 1650, but was not completed until 1671. Date Munetoshi replaced the former ''tenshu'' with the current structure in 1666. The castle was severely damaged again in the 1854 Ansei great earthquakes, during which time the ''tenshu'' and 24 ''yagura'' were damaged and four ''yagura'' completely destroyed. Major restoration work continued to 1860. The Date clan continued to rule Uwajima Domain 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 ...

. During the Bakumatsu period, Date Munenari introduced military reforms and built up a western-style army; however, the domain did to participate in 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 ...

and the castle was undamaged.

Current situation

The castle initially escaped the effects of government decrees for the destruction of all former feudal fortifications, but from 1900 to 1913, much of its stone walls and remaining gates and ''yagura'' were destroyed with construction work on the expansion of Uwajima Port. In 1934, the ''tenshu'' and ''Otemon'' (main gate) were designated a National Treasure () before the 1950 National Treasure Protection Law (文化財保護法施) was enacted, and in 1937 the site received National Historic Site designation. However, the Otemon gate was subsequently destroyed in the final days of

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 ...

by American air raids. In 1949, the Date clan donated the tenshu and remaining grounds of the castle to the city of Uwajima.In 1950, the ''tenshu'' was redesignated as a National Important Cultural Property under the current Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties. In 1952, one surviving gate of the castle, the Nagaya Gate, was relocated and reconstructed on the site of the former Otemon. The tenshu was extensively repaired from 1960 to 1962. In 1965, the Nagaya Gate and one other surviving gate, the Noboritachimon gate were designated Uwajima City Tangible Cultural Properties. Further repairs on the stone walls was conducted in 1994. Uwajima Castle was listed as one of Japan's Top 100 Castles by the Japan Castle Foundation in 2006.Japan Castle Foundation
/ref> The castle is located a 20-minute walk from

JR Shikoku The , commonly known as , is the smallest of the seven constituent companies of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group). It operates of intercity and local rail services in the four Prefectures of Japan, prefectures on the island of Shikoku in Jap ...

Uwajima Station.

Cultural Properties

The of Uwajima Castle has been protected as an Important Cultural Property since 1934

Gallery

Uwajima Castle keep tower in 1928.jpg, Uwajima Castle keep tower in 1928 Uwajima Castle, Noboritachimon-2.jpg, Noboritachimon Uwajima Castle, Nagayamon.jpg, Nagayamon Uwajima Castle, honmaru ishigaki-1.jpg, Walls of the inner bailey

References

Literature