Iwakuni Castle
| Iwakuni Castle | ||
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 Iwakuni Castle, castle tower |
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| Castle type : | Yamajiro (mountain castle) | |
| Conservation status: | Partly reconstructed | |
| Place: | Iwakuni | |
| Geographical location | 34 ° 10 '30.9 " N , 132 ° 10' 27.2" E | |
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The Iwakuni Castle ( Japanese 岩 国 城 , Iwakuni-jō ) is located in the city of Iwakuni , ( Yamaguchi Prefecture ). In the Edo period there resided the the higher nobility of the sword belonging Kikkawa with an income of 30,000 Koku .
history
When the Mōri emerged as losers from the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 , the Kikkawa belonging to the Mōri also lost three-quarters of their income from the properties in the provinces of Izumo and Hōki . With the remaining 30,000 Koku they moved to Iwakuni.
Kikkawa Hiroie ( 吉川 広 家 ; 1561–1624) built a residence, Odoi ( 御 土 居 ), on a hill on the Nishiki River ( 錦 川 , Nishikigawa ), and built a castle on the mountain behind it. The central area, the Hommaru ( 本 丸 ), with a castle tower ( 天 守 閣 , tenshukaku ) is joined by the second area, the Ni-no-maru ( 二 の 丸 ), in the southwest , and another area, Kita-no-maru ( 北 の 丸 ), in the northeast ) called. After only a few years the castle had to be demolished on the general instruction of the shogunate to reduce the number of castles "[Only] one castle per province" ( 一 国 一 城 , Ikkoku ichijō ).
The residence below was rectangular in plan, protected on one side by the mountain and on the other three sides by ditches. On the front there was the main gate in the middle, designed as a yagurator, on the east and west corners three-story tatami-yagura ( 畳 矢 倉 ), on the west side inside there was a two-story and the three-story Monomi watchtower ( 物 見 矢 倉 ) .
Iwakuni Castle was destroyed twice: the first time the buildings were demolished on the basis of the instructions mentioned, the second time in 1638 the walls were largely demolished. After the Shimabara uprising and the experiences with Hara Castle, the shogunate in western Japan did not want any castle ruins that could have been used again for uprisings.
The second lord of the castle Kikkawa Hiromasa ( 吉川 広 正 ; 1601–1666) was classified as a high vassal ( 陪臣 , baishin ), but was treated like a daimyo by the shogunate. The Kikkawa were formally elevated to daimyo in 1868.
In 1962 the castle tower (six floors inside, four outside) was rebuilt according to old plans made of reinforced concrete, 30 m away from the original location, so that it is better visible from below. On the grounds of the residence at the foot of the castle hill, a pavilion named Kin'un-kaku ( 錦雲 閣 ) was built in 1885 in place of the tatami watchtower in the southwest . In 1968 the whole railing of the residence was redesigned as a public park under the name Kikkō-kōen ( 吉 香 講演 ). The name Kikkō alludes to the name of the shrine in which the Kikkawa family is venerated and which used to stand on the site.
Remarks
- ↑ In the documents on Iwakuni Castle, the watchtowers are marked with the two characters 矢 倉 and the meaning “memory for arrows” instead of the usual 櫓 with the same reading .
literature
- Kato, Masafumi: Iwakuni-jo in: Miura, Masayuki (Ed.): Shiro to jinya. Saikoku-hen. Gakken, 2006. ISBN 978-4-05-604379-2 .
- Nishigaya, Yasuhiro (Ed.): Iwakuni-jo. In: Nihon meijo zukan, Rikogaku-sha, 1993. ISBN 4-8445-3017-8 .
