Ishikawa Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture d'Aomori

South of Hirosaki, on a promontory locals call Ōbutsugahana, the "nose of the Great Buddha", Ishikawa Castle was for nearly three centuries one of the keys to the Tsugaru Plain. Tradition dates its foundation to 1334 and attributes it to a member of the Hiraga branch of the Soga clan, settled in the region before his descendants were subjugated by the Nanbu clan. The name actually designated a whole network of thirteen neighbouring forts and residences, the "thirteen shields of Ishikawa". In 1533 Ishikawa Takanobu, a member of the Nanbu house, settled there to control Tsugaru. On 5 May 1571, Ōura Tamenobu, the future Tsugaru Tamenobu, seized the stronghold in a dawn attack; Takanobu took his own life, and this capture marked the beginning of the Tsugaru's emancipation from the Nanbu. Having become a Tsugaru outpost, the castle was abandoned in 1611 when Hirosaki Castle was completed. The site is now laid out as a public garden, Daibutsu Park.