En un regard
Le château en bref
Built on the alluvial plain of the Anō at an elevation of about two metres, Tsu Castle drew its strength from water: the Anō and Iwata rivers provided cover, and wide moats ringed the enceinte. Tradition credits its founding, around 1580, to Oda Nobukane, brother of Nobunaga, on a site where a small Hosono fortification is said to have already stood, though no clear written evidence survives. The domain then passed to the Tomita family, and later to Tōdō Takatora, who arrived from Imabari in 1608 and began a complete reconstruction from 1611.
This work added enceintes to the east and west, widened the inner moats, raised the north wall and reorganised the town around an Ise road relocated to the east of the castle. The Tōdō held the domain without interruption until the Meiji era, which accounts for the stability of the layout. The towers were demolished in the Meiji period, and the moats were gradually filled in. The honmaru and nishi-no-maru now form a park, where the stone walls and part of the inner moats are original. The eye-catching three-storey white tower is a concrete structure built in 1958, with no documented correspondence to the historical buildings.
