is a 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 the center of the city of Yonezawa, 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 ...

. Throughout 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 ...

, Yonezawa Castle was home to 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 ...

, ''

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

Yonezawa Domain was a feudal domain in Edo period Japan, located in Dewa Province (modern-day Yamagata Prefecture), Japan. It was centered at Yonezawa castle in what is now the city of Yonezawa, and its territory extended over the Okitama District of Dewa Pr ...

History

The first castle on this site dates to the middle of 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 ...

. Ōe Tokihiro, the younger son of Ōe no Hiromoto, a senior retainer of the

Kamakura shogunate The was the feudal military government of Japan during the Kamakura period from 1185 to 1333. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Kamakura-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 459. The Kamakura shogunate was established by Minamoto no Yori ...

was granted lands in

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 ...

, and in 1238 changed his name to Nagai Tokihiro. The Nagai continued to rule for about 150 years. The Nagai were supplanted in 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 ...

by 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 ...

, and the famed warlord

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 ...

was born at Yonezawa Castle. After Date Masamune defeated the Ashina clan in 1589, he moved his main castle to Kurokawa Castle in

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 ...

and put Date Munekiyo in charge of Yonezawa. However,

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: ...

did not agree, and forced Masamune to move back to Yonezawa. In 1591, Masamune relocated to Iwadeyama Castle by orders of Hideyoshi, surrendering Yonezawa Castle 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 ...

. When Ujisato’s son,

Gamō Hideyuki was a Japanese ''daimyō'' who ruled the Aizu domain. He was the son of Gamō Ujisato. A Catholic, Hideyuki was moved to Utsunomiya (180,000 ''koku'') in Shimotsuke Province after his father died in 1595. In 1600, he was given Aizu, worth 600, ...

was moved to Utsunomiya in 1597, the castle was turned over 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 ...

, as part of their vast 1,200,000 ''

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 ...

'' holdings based in Aizu. The castellan at this time was

Naoe Kanetsugu was a Japanese samurai of the 16th–17th centuries. The eldest son of Higuchi Kanetoyo, Kanetsugu was famed for his service to two generations of the Uesugi ''daimyōs''. He was also known by his court title, Yamashiro no Kami (山城守) or ...

. However, 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, ...

, the Uesugi were stripped of most of their holdings 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 ...

, and were reduced to a 300,000 ''koku'' domain centered on Yonezawa. From 1608-1613, the Uesugi completely renovated the castle. However, due to the reduction in size of their holdings as compared with Aizu and the suspicion with which the clan was viewed by 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 defensive earthen works were not faced with stone, and

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 ...

was kept to a modest three-stories. The Uesugi also relocated the grave of their founder,

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 ...

from

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, ...

to within the walls of Yonezawa Castle. In 1664, the clan revenues were halved to 150,000 ''koku'', forcing it to lay off many samurai, and for many others to take up part-time farming. However, the castle remained in the hands of the Uesugi clan 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 ...

. With the

Abolition of the han system The in the Empire of Japan and its replacement by a system of prefectures in 1871 was the culmination of the Meiji Restoration begun in 1868, the starting year of the Meiji period. Under the reform, all daimyos (, ''daimyō'', feudal lords) ...

in 1871, Yonezawa Domain became Yonezawa Prefecture, and in 1872 Uesugi Shrine, honoring the ancestors of the Uesugi clan, was established within the grounds of the castle. All remaining structures were demolished in 1873 and in the second bailey, the present-day Yonezawa city hall was constructed. The main bailey was transformed into a public park in 1874. The Uesugi Shrine was transferred to its present location on top of the site of the donjon in 1876.

Uesugi Shrine

Uesugi Shrine is a

Beppyo shrine A ''Beppyō'' shrine () is a category of Shinto shrine, as defined by the Association of Shinto Shrines. They are considered to be remarkable in some way, and thus given a higher status than other shrines. It is considered the successor to the mo ...

Yonezawa, Yamagata file:Yonezawa City hall 0295.JPG, Yonezawa City Hall is a Cities of Japan, 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 ar ...

. It is dedicated to

, a historical Japanese military leader. In February lanterns are carved from snow for the snow lantern festival It was built on the site of Yonezawa Castle in 1876

References

Bibliography

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External links

Yonezawa Castle Jcastle Profile
{{Continued Top 100 Japanese Castles Buildings and structures completed in 1238 Castles in Yamagata Prefecture Date clan Uesugi clan Beppyo shrines Bekkaku Kanpeisha Shinto shrines in Yamagata Prefecture Buildings and structures completed in 1876 1876 establishments in Japan