Kawasaki Castle (Shimotsuke)

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture de Tochigi

For nearly four centuries Kawasaki Castle was the seat of the Shioya clan, lords of the Shioya area in northern Shimotsuke. Built at the very beginning of the 13th century by Shioya Tomonari, it stretches along a narrow ridge about one kilometre long from north to south and only two hundred metres wide, which earned it the nickname of "snail castle". The main bailey occupies the southern end, followed to the north by a water-source enclosure, a "new castle" and a probable archery ground. Lying on the borders between the Utsunomiya and Nasu territories, it was hotly contested in the 16th century: besieged by the Yūki in 1559, an internal crisis in 1564, and Nasu raids until 1585. Yet it never fell to an outside enemy and was only abandoned in 1595, when Toyotomi Hideyoshi dispossessed Shioya Yoshitsuna. Designated a historic site by the city of Yaita, it now forms Kawasaki Castle Ruins Park, where dry moats, earthen ramparts, the honmaru and the ni-no-maru can be explored on foot among a plum grove, a pond and an arched bridge, and where a festival of about 5,000 lanterns is held every August.