Fukushima Castle (Fukushima)

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture de Fukushima

In the heart of the city of Fukushima, a castle that has all but vanished is best understood through its successive names. First mentioned in 1413 as Daibutsu-jō, when Date Mochimune entrenched himself there to rise against the Ashikaga shogunate, it remained throughout the Muromachi period one of the southern strongholds of the Date clan, who then called it Suginome-jō. In 1592, Gamō Ujisato entrusted the stronghold to his vassal Kimura Yoshikiyo, and the site took the name Fukushima. In 1601, the nearby plain was the scene of the Battle of Matsukawa between Date Masamune and Honjō Shigenaga. A hirayamajiro-type castle, it became the seat of Fukushima Domain in 1679, held first by the Honda and then the Hotta, before passing in 1702 to the Itakura clan, which kept it until the Meiji Restoration. Surrendered without a fight in 1868 and dismantled at the start of the Meiji era, it gave way to the Fukushima Prefectural Office. Only a fragment of earthen rampart, a trace of a moat and the garden of the former residence, now Momijiyama Park, still recall the fortress.