Minagawa Castle

History

If you look around the internet and books and you'll find different dates for the original establishment of this castle dating from the 1200s to the 1400's. Earlier dates seem to be referring to a history written in the latter Edo Period about the Shimotsuke region which is actually referring to a smaller fortified home type castle of the Naganuma (forefathers of the Minagawa) at a nearby location and not actually this Minagawa Castle. The castle we know of today was likely founded by the the Minagawa in 1438-1439 in the Eikyo Rebellion.

In 1523, the Minagawa were attacked by Utsunomiya Tadatsuna. The lord of the castle, Munenari, and his brother Noriaki were mortally injured. The clan was saved by their allies the Oyama and the Yuki. As the Hojo extended their influence into the Kanto plain, the Minagawa fought them off until Munenari's grandson Toshimune acceded to the Hojo. After Munenari's death, his son Hiroteru joined forces with the Satake against the Hojo in 1578. They could not stand up to the Hojo and Hiroteru yielded in 1586. In 1590, while Hiroteru was besieged with the Hojo at Odawara, Minagawa Castle fell to the Hideyoshi forces. Before the Hojo yielded to Hideyoshi, Hiroteru managed to escape the castle and joined up with Tokugawa Ieyasu. Owing to this bit of luck, Hiroteru would become a retainer of Ieyasu's son, Matsudaira Tadateru. In 1591, he built Tochigi Castle and abandoned Minagawa Castle.

Visit Notes

Be sure to take the small trail from the honmaru back into the woods, or from the West Gate around into the woods to see the less developed part of the castle. It's not well signposted or labelled but the area occupied by the community center was the former palace grounds. If you look down from the honmaru area you can see that it is a rectangle nicely marked out by a moat.

This is a fascinating and unique design for a castle. It has concentric baileys built up the mountainside and gates offset to force any attackers to zigzag back and forth but there are also large vertical trenches cutting off their ease of movement. It seems like it would be easy to defend and provides limitless good angles to shot down at attackers.

本丸や西虎口から裏への道も大変お勧めです。あまり整備されていない林の中の遺構も一般の山城気分で味わえます。本丸から見下ろす時に居館と侍屋敷があった場所も地形に寄ってよくみられます。現在は公民館です。

この城の縄張りが独特で面白いです。山全体が帯曲輪や腰曲輪で段々になって囲まれています。竪堀が更に敵の移動を妨げるので防備に有効的な縄張りに見えます。

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Gallery

Obikuruwa, looking toward honmaru
vertical trench
Looking to the honmaru bailey
baileys
ringed baileys
Ringed baileys and vertical trench
Large vertical trench or moat
Inside a ringed bailey
Ringed baileys
Large vertical trench
large trench
Trench, bailey and earthen embankment
West Entrance
West entramnce
Ringed baileys
Ringed baileys
Baileys
Ringed baileys
Bailey entrance
Bailey
Ninokuruwa Bailey
Entrance around the back side of the castle.
Entrance
Entrance
Large trench
Honmaru Bailey
Honmaru bailey
View form the honmaru tower
Palace and samurai residence location
Moat and earthen embankment
Map

Castle Profile
English Name	Minagawa Castle
Japanese Name	皆川城
Alternate Names	Horagai-jo
Founder	Minagawa clan
Year Founded	1438~1450
Castle Type	Mountaintop
Castle Condition	Ruins only
Designations	Local Historic Site
Historical Period	Pre Edo Period
Features	trenches
Visitor Information
Access	Tochigi Sta. (JR Ryomo Line or Tobu Nikko Line), 5km walk or 1900 yen taxi.
Visitor Information	Open anytime.
Time Required	90 mins
Website	http://www.kuranomachi.jp/spot/minagawa/joshi/
Location	Tochigi, Tochigi Prefecture
Coordinates	36° 23' 49.45" N, 139° 40' 59.52" E
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Admin
Added to Jcastle	2015
Admin Year Visited	2015
Admin Visits	April 4, 2015

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ARTShogun

78 months ago

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Minagawajō is made up of many layered concentric terraces roughly in the shape of a kofun (ancient burial mound). In the cover photo you can see about five of these tiers climbing like a staircase up the mountain, although there are at least eight tiers around the central kuruwa (bailey), rising 100m in total. The layout of the Ichinokurawa relative to the more expansive Ninokuruwa (first and second baileys respectively) reminded me of the motte-and-bailey style fortifications of early European castles, although any resemblance is coincidental. The castle has karabori (dry moats) around the mountain and dorui (earthen ramparts) facing the plain. There are two tatebori (climbing moats) cut into the mountainside, the largest of which appears kinked when viewed from above. Minagawajō is well maintained and when we came monochrome yellow daffodil flowers lined many of the paths, their trumpet coronas making for a pleasant procession up to the top of the castle.

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