Honjō Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture d'Akita

Set on the low Ozaki hill in the heart of present-day Yurihonjō, Honjō Castle was founded in 1613 by Tateoka Mitsushige, a vassal of Mogami Yoshiaki, who was leaving the inconvenient site of Akatsunotsu. Also known as Tsurumai-jō and Ozaki-jō, this hill-and-plain castle was laid out in three concentric enclosures: the main bailey crowned the summit, while the second and third baileys stood on earthen terraces surrounded by moats. It never had a keep; a two-storey turret served in its place. After the fall of the Mogami in 1622, Rokugō Masanori received the fief in 1623, reduced and repaired the fortress to match his income and organised the castle town. His descendants ruled the Honjō Domain from here for eleven generations, until the Meiji Restoration. Caught up in the Boshin War, the castle was destroyed in 1868 during fighting involving the forces of the Shōnai Domain. Today the site is a public park where sections of moat and earthworks survive and where a gate has been reconstructed.