Komatsu Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture d'Ishikawa

Komatsu Castle was founded around 1576 by Wakabayashi Nagato-no-kami, leader of the Ikkō-ikki insurgents of Kaga Province, then captured in 1579 by Shibata Katsuie on behalf of Oda Nobunaga. Held afterwards by Murakami and then by Niwa Nagashige, it passed to the Maeda after Sekigahara and was abandoned in 1615 under the one-castle-per-province rule. Its true heyday came in 1639, when Maeda Toshitsune, second lord of the Kaga domain, chose it for his retirement and had it rebuilt with new stone walls and enlarged enclosures. Nicknamed the "floating castle" for its vast water moats and artificial islets, this flatland castle is said to have covered nearly twice the area of Kanazawa Castle. A three-storey turret served in place of a keep. Abolished in 1872, it has almost vanished beneath Komatsu High School, the city hall and Ashijō Park, laid out in 1904 on the third enclosure. The keep platform and walls of the inner moat survive, while several gates were re-erected at a local temple and at the Seisonkaku in Kanazawa.