Shingū Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture de Wakayama

Set on Tankaku Hill, an isolated knoll about sixty metres high overlooking the mouth of the Kumano River and the Pacific Ocean, Shingū Castle (also called Tankaku-jō or Okimi-jō) is a Japanese hirayamajiro-type castle. Work was begun in the early 17th century by Asano Tadayoshi, a relative of the daimyō of Kii, and was taken over and completed in 1633 by the Mizuno family, senior retainers (tsuke-garō) of the Kii Tokugawa, who governed Shingū for ten generations until the end of the Edo period. The buildings were demolished in the early Meiji era, but imposing stone walls, the base of the keep and the layout of the enclosures survive. Excavations in the Mizunote area revealed a rarity: storehouses on stone foundations for charcoal, a lucrative domain monopoly. Designated a National Historic Site in 2003 together with the Mizuno family cemetery, the site is now Tankaku-jō Park, freely accessible and popular for its early cherry blossoms and its view of the Kumano-ōhashi bridge. It is listed among the Continued Top 100 Japanese Castles.