17 new castle profiles and 14 samurai residences from ART
17 new castle profiles and 14 samurai residences from ART
2020/12/07
ART, the tireless castle explorer, has added 17 new castle profiles and 14 samurai residences from his journeys through Western Japan. I'll have another update soon for even more Nagano area profiles. I think it's particularly nice to get the Nijo Castle related sites in Kyoto cataloged here.
If you haven't seen his Japanese Castles Facebook page, check it out as well. His castle adventures are updated in a much more timely manner.
My apologies that it has taken so long to get these updates posted. I haven't had time to go through each in detail so if there are any mistakes you can blame ART ! :)
New Samurai Residence Profiles
Thanks in large part to ART, I think this is becoming one of the most comprehensive catalogs of extant samurai residences in English or Japanese.
- Uchiyama Residence
- Tamura Residence
- Nishi Residence
- Mori Residence
- Akai Residence
- Irimajiri Residence
- Iwami Takahashi Residence
- Muneoka Residence
- Miyake Residence
- Yanagihara Residence
- Katou Residence
- Abe Residence
- Kawashima Residence
- Kinoshita Residence
New Castle Profiles
Bingo Kouyama Castle / 備後甲山城
Honshouji Castle / 本證寺城
A network of dorui is located behind the temple's main hall. I could glimpse these ruins from the roadside but this area of the temple is not open to the public. When I visited, the temple's waterways - that is the former castle's moats - were busy with wildlife, including humungous toads which barked at me and ran up and down the banks. These black-skinned, football-sized critters may have been bullfrogs (non-indigenous to Japan).
The drum tower, an Edo Period reconstruction of a tower first erected in the Sengoku Period, dates to 1760. All structures at the temple date to the Edo Period (Hondō: 1663, Shōrō: 1703, Kyōzō: 1823, gates: around 1700), as they were each in turn rebuilt after becoming dilapidated. The structures adjacent to the moat have connections to the site's fortified past and this is evident in the looking, especially with the drum tower, but the current structures date to after the temple ceased to function as a fort, so perhaps calling them extant castle structures is improper, but they appear to qualify as reconstructions of castle structures, albeit proto-modern rather than modern! So, to clarify, I consider these castle structures, but not strictly original. That won't really matter to most people anyway. I recommend visiting this site if you're looking for something new in the area. I went expecting very little, so to see these castlesque buildings and toad-ruled moats was an unanticipated, enthralling adventure for me.Iwade Danjou Kyokan / 岩手弾正居館
Joujou Castle / 上条城
Kikkawa Motoharu Yakata / 吉川元春館
Kyotoshin Castle / 京都新城
Mikawa Hime Castle / 三河姫城
Nijoko Castle / 二条古城
Ogawamatobaoka Castle / 小川的場丘城
Ohga Castle / 大桑城
I brought my bear bell and found bear scratchings but because there were a fair amount of people around this proved unnecessary. The out-of-the-way yamajiro's surge in popularity owes to the recent taiga drama about Akechi Mitsuhide. Those poor bears have been put-out by the TV show! I can imagine them sitting around and discussing the sudden human activity on their mountain and being like, "Yup, it's that taiga drama, I told you". The base of the mountain has a new toilet for guests, so fresh I could still smell the wood, and extra parking spaces, as well as signs and materials, so they've really played up to their local tourist boom! Nice to see such appreciation for this nifty little site.
The plains surrounding the mountain citadel were divided by at least three large moat and embankment systems. Before it got dark I was able to find one, the Shikokubori (four province moat). Although the signposting is good, it's all in Japanese. Only one sign at the start of the trail I saw had any English, and it was a very general summary. Not a big concern for me but I suppose they aren't expecting many foreign visitors. Speaking of signs, the ruins are dotted with quizes about the castle's history put there by schoolchildren. It all makes for a lovely hike.Ohmori Daikansho / 大森代官所
Owari Gakuden Castle / 尾張楽田城
Owari Haguro Castle / 尾張羽黒城
Sakurai Castle / 桜井城
Shimosaka Yakata / 下坂館
Yamashiro Imamura Castle / 山城今村城
Yamashiro Ryuuga Castle / 山城龍臥城
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