Fukasawa Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture de Shizuoka

Fukasawa Castle (深沢城) stands in the north of present-day Gotemba on a natural spur enclosed by two rivers, the Nukigawa and the Mabushigawa, whose cliffs provided a ready-made defence. Founded by the Imagawa clan in the Muromachi period, it commanded a road junction linking the provinces of Suruga, Kai and Sagami, including the route towards the Ashigara Pass. This position made it, in the 16th century, the object of a fierce struggle between the Takeda and the Later Hōjō. The siege led by Takeda Shingen against Hōjō Tsunashige's garrison remains famous for the "Fukasawa yabumi", a summons to surrender tied to an arrow and shot into the castle, whose text has survived. The layout is that of a flatland castle with successive enclosures: the honmaru, ni-no-maru and san-no-maru line up from north to south over about 400 m, separated by dry moats crossed by earthen causeways. Crescent-shaped moats (mikazuki-bori), associated with Takeda fortification methods, are still clearly visible. Part of the site is now farmland, and a stone monument recalls the poem composed there by General Nogi Maresuke in 1879. The site is protected as a Shizuoka Prefecture Historic Site.