Mizusawa Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture d'Iwate

Set on the western bank of the Kitakami River, in the heart of the Isawa plain, Mizusawa Castle was a flatland castle of obscure origins: tradition credits Minamoto no Yoriyoshi with founding it in the 11th century, though no written evidence supports this. Its documented history begins with vassals of the Kasai clan, then with the upheavals of 1590-1591, when Toyotomi Hideyoshi reorganised northern Japan. Restored in 1591, the site came under Date Masamune and, after 1601, became a fortified residence (yōgai) of the Sendai domain. From 1629 the Rusu branch, known as the Date of Mizusawa, ruled here until the end of the Edo period, founding the Ritsuseikan school in 1835. In the Meiji era the former palace housed the Isawa prefectural administration, where young pages who later became famous, such as Gotō Shinpei and Saitō Makoto, served. The buildings later gave way to schools and then to Ōshū city hall; today only a fragment of earthen rampart, an old cedar and a few trees recall the fortress.