Hayakawa Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture de Kanagawa

Hayakawa Castle stood at the southern tip of a tongue-shaped plateau on the left bank of the Mekujiri River, a tributary of the Sagami, some 700 metres west of Ayase City Hall. Local tradition makes it the fortified residence of Shibuya Shigekuni, a gokenin vassal of Minamoto no Yoritomo in the Kamakura period, which would place its origin in the 12th century. Written sources are scarce, however, and the builder's exact identity remains uncertain: the six excavation campaigns carried out between 1989 and 1994 yielded traces of occupation only for the 14th and 15th centuries. They uncovered enclosures, ditches, earthen ramparts, a lookout mound, postholes and finds, notably kawarake clay cups. Regarded as one of the best-preserved castle sites in Kanagawa Prefecture, with its large dry moats and embankments, it is designated a prefectural historic site. The site now forms Shiroyama Park, the city's second-largest park, with a Japanese garden, a rose garden and a cherry-blossom lawn.