Iwaki-Taira Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

The castle arose from the reshaping of Tōhoku after 1600. Torii Tadamasa, granted 100,000 koku, settled at Taira in 1602, replacing the Iwaki. The date of 1603 and the twelve-year duration of the works belong to tradition: the city's 2022 report points out that the fullest accounts, such as the Iwaki Kudaiki, were written more than 150 years after the events. Maps from the Naitō period suggest occupation from 1616. Tadamasa left for Yamagata in 1622 and the Naitō took over; they are credited with the general enclosure linked to the diversion of the Shinkawa in 1652, then with heavy works on moats and ramparts from 1676. The naturally steep plateau required few very high walls, with stonework concentrated at the honmaru and the Ōte-kuruwa. The castle had no keep; the Sangai-yagura tower was its emblematic structure, a type of tower that could sometimes take the keep's place in the strongholds of fudai daimyō. The Inoue, then the Andō from 1756, succeeded the Naitō. The stronghold fell in 1868 during the Boshin War, and its buildings were demolished in 1873. Excavations, scattered by sector, have notably found the bank of the inner moat near Iwaki station. Since 2019 the city has been pursuing a park project on the former honmaru.