Shinjō Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

Shinjō Castle sums up the establishment of a small domain in northern Dewa at the start of the Edo period. Tozawa Masamori, who founded the Shinjō domain in 1622, completed his castle there in 1625 while also organising the town and its canals; the municipal development document speaks sometimes of construction and sometimes of reconstruction, which suggests that an earlier settlement should not be ruled out, though none is documented in the sources consulted. The Honmaru, surrounded by moats and earthen ramparts and with a turret at each corner, was dominated by a tenshu-yagura. This was destroyed by fire in 1636 and, according to the city, never rebuilt: for more than two centuries, then, the castle functioned without a keep. The Tozawa remained there for eleven generations, about 250 years. The Boshin War brought this ensemble to an end: in 1868, the Shōnai forces attacked, and both town and castle were destroyed. The Honmaru then housed a school and a district hall, followed by shrines, including the Tenman-jinja, listed by the prefecture. The site became a park in 1912, then a municipal historic site in 1963. The city is preparing its redevelopment under a plan covering about 8.7 ha.