Tanagura Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

Niwa Nagashige settled in Tanagura in 1622 with a domain of 50,000 koku. In 1624 the shogunate ordered him to build a castle; the Chikatsu Myōjin shrine (都々古別神社) was moved to clear the ground and work began in 1625. A regional tourism page gives 1624 for the start of construction, a discrepancy resolved by distinguishing the order from its execution. The founder hardly benefited: he was transferred to Shirakawa as early as 1627, and Naitō Nobuteru took over the development of the town. A long rotation then began, eight families and sixteen lords over some 240 years, drawn from the circle of fudai daimyō and the Tokugawa branches. The site controlled the Mito road, between Hitachi and Mutsu, and stands, according to the municipal plan, as a textbook example of defensive thinking from the period after the wars. In 1868, during the Boshin War, troops of the new government commanded by Itagaki Taisuke took the stronghold after Shirakawa; traces of fire on the base stones confirm the destruction. The nickname Kamegajō, castle of the turtle, comes from a legend of a giant turtle foretelling the departure of the lords. Designated a national historic site on 26 February 2019, the place celebrated its 400th anniversary in 2025 and serves as a park.