Isawa Fort

En un regard

Le château en bref

Founded in 802 by Sakanoue no Tamuramaro, according to the national record, Isawa Fort stands near the confluence of the Isawa and Kitakami rivers. One travel guide links the foundation to the surrender of Aterui in the same year. Around 808 the Chinjufu, the military command, was moved here from Taga-jō. The city's 2017 exhibition presents the site, in the mid-ninth century, as the hub of authority over northern Mutsu. The enclosure, a square about 670 m on each side, surrounds an administrative centre about 90 m on each side. In this same period the buildings were altered and some received tiled roofs. The end of the establishment remains under discussion. Ceramics indicate that the central buildings were no longer in use around 930-960, and the city of Ōshū places the end of its function in the second half of the tenth century; but the Mutsu waki still mentions the Chinjufu in 1056, and later celadons and porcelains found near the south gate suggest a prolonged, perhaps ritual, use. Designated as early as 12 October 1922, with extensions in 2011 and 2015, the site has been excavated since 1954. A park opened in 2019 at the south gate.