Takada Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture de Niigata

Built in record time in 1614 on the orders of the Tokugawa shogunate, Takada Castle was designed for Matsudaira Tadateru, the sixth son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, to control Echigo Province and the Sea of Japan route. The work, directed by Date Masamune and supported by thirteen daimyō houses, was largely completed in about four months. A flatland castle, Takada was notable for its lack of stone walls: its enclosures relied on broad earthen ramparts and extensive moats fed by nearby rivers. Having no keep, a three-storey corner turret served as its symbol. Fires and dismantling in the Meiji era destroyed the original buildings. The site is now Takada Castle Site Park, where the line of the moats and earthen ramparts can still be traced, along with a three-storey turret rebuilt in 1993 from old plans, housing a small exhibition and an observation deck. More than 4,000 cherry trees draw crowds every spring, and the night illuminations of the blossoms reflected in the moats are among the best-known images of the Jōetsu area.