En un regard
Le château en bref
Shiryōkaku is a small earthwork on a gently sloping plateau about three kilometres north-northeast of Goryōkaku, with views over Hakodate and its bay. It belonged to the network of positions prepared by former shogunate forces after they occupied Goryōkaku in the tenth month of 1868, in anticipation of a counter-offensive by the new government. The city of Hakodate states that it was meant to protect the Hokkaidō Tōshō-gū, the guardian shrine of Goryōkaku, while the Agency for Cultural Affairs defines it as a defensive post north of the stronghold. According to a local tradition, presented as such by the municipality, some two hundred soldiers and about one hundred local residents raised it in a few days, working day and night.
Its four-pointed outline, likened by the city to a butterfly with outspread wings, borrows from Western fortification but remains a field work, with no buildings at all. The earthen rampart and dry ditch are modest in height, and cannon were placed at the four corners. During the general assault on the eleventh day of the fifth month of 1869, troops from Fukuyama and Chōshū seized Gongen-daiba, located between the earthwork and Goryōkaku; threatened with being cut off from their line of retreat, the defenders fell back to the main stronghold. Designated a national Historic Site in 1934, it is today a park with restored earthworks, managed by the city.
