En un regard
Le château en bref
Kunohe Castle stands where the Mabuchi and Shiratori rivers meet, in Ninohe, on a terrace bordered by rivers on three sides. According to the city, it is said to have been founded in the Meiō era (1492-1501) by Kunohe Mitsumasa, four generations before Masazane; this attribution remains a tradition. It consists of large enclosures separated by dry moats: honmaru, ninomaru, sannomaru, Matsunomaru, Wakasa-date and Soto-date. The whole covers about 36 hectares, some twenty of which are protected. The site is best known for the siege of 1591, which closed Toyotomi Hideyoshi's military operations in northern Honshū.
Two phases can still be read on the ground. Outer parts such as the Wakasa-date and Soto-date retain the character of the Kunohe castle, while the honmaru, raised with added earth, the ninomaru and the Matsunomaru belong to works undertaken after the fall of the stronghold, on the orders of Gamō Ujisato. The honmaru's stone walls, laid in the nozura manner and attributed to Anō-type masons, are presented by the city as the oldest identified in Tōhoku. Renamed Fukuoka, the castle served as a Nanbu base until the clan moved to Morioka, and it was abandoned in 1636. The city has since pursued land acquisition, excavation and the development of the site as a historic park; a workshop that yielded armour plates has been identified in the ninomaru.
