Takaoka Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture de Toyama

In the heart of the city of Takaoka, a vast wooded park surrounded by wide moats preserves the layout of a short-lived yet foundational castle. In 1609 Maeda Toshinaga, the retired second lord of Kaga Domain, lost his residence at Toyama to fire and obtained permission from the shogunate to build a new stronghold on the Sekino plateau. The plan, attributed to the Christian daimyō Takayama Ukon, traces a large rectangle of about 400 by 200 metres, divided into water-girt enclosures whose arrangement recalls Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Jurakudai palace. Yet the castle had a brief life: Toshinaga died in 1614 and, as early as 1615, the 'one castle per province' rule imposed by the Tokugawa led to its dismantling. The Maeda nevertheless kept the site, turned into a storage area for tax rice and salt, which preserved the moats and earthworks. Sold to private owners in 1870, the land was saved by local residents and became Kojo Park, the 'old castle park', in 1875. Now a National Historic Site, it houses Imizu Shrine, a municipal museum, a small zoo and a multitude of cherry trees, while the stone walls and water-filled moats, remarkably intact, bear witness to the power of the Maeda in Etchū Province.