Kanō Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture de Gifu

Kanō Castle stands in the south of the city of Gifu, about fifteen minutes' walk from the station. A first castle was built here in 1445 by Saitō Toshinaga, a vassal of the Toki, before being abandoned in the early 16th century. After the Battle of Sekigahara, Tokugawa Ieyasu had Gifu Castle dismantled and in 1602 ordered a new stronghold built on this site, entrusted to his son-in-law Okudaira Nobumasa. A collective project financed by several daimyō, it reused materials from Gifu, including a three-storey tower that served as the keep. A flatland castle with a double moat, stretching some 550 metres from north to south, it served as the model for so-called “Kanō-type” castles with its square main enclosure extended by a projecting work. Seat of the Kanō Domain throughout the Edo period, it was dismantled in the early Meiji era, then occupied by a normal school and military installations. Designated a National Historic Site in 1983, it is now Kanō Park, where the stone walls of the main enclosure and traces of the moats survive.