Morioka Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

Morioka Castle stands on a granite rise where the Kitakami and Nakatsu rivers meet, in the heart of present-day Iwate Prefecture. Seat of the Nanbu throughout the Edo period, it is a hill-and-plain castle whose honmaru, ninomaru and sannomaru follow one another in sequence. Work began in the late sixteenth century and continued in stages over several decades: the national register of protected properties gives 1597 for the start and 1633 for completion, while the city also notes a proposed start date of 1598. The castle's main surviving feature is its granite stonework, with a total wall surface estimated at about 10,000 m². The buildings disappeared early in the Meiji era. They were sold at auction in 1874, and the land passed through military use before returning to the Nanbu. Iwate Park, designed by Nagaoka Yasuhei, opened in 1906, and the site was designated in 1937. In 2006 the park took the name Morioka Castle Ruins Park. Since 1984, several campaigns have dismantled and rebuilt sections of the walls, some of which are bulging, and recent excavations in the honmaru have uncovered foundation stones attributed to the palace. The city has also mentioned, since 2022, a study on restoring the main tower and a two-storey building.