Kagoshima Castle

Kagoshima Castle (鹿児島城, Kagoshima-jō), also known as Tsurumaru Castle, was a Japanese castle located in Kagoshima, Kagoshima Prefecture.

Water moat and stone wall of Kagoshima Castle
Kagoshima Castle
鹿児島城
Kagoshima, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan
TypeJapanese castle
Site information
Controlled byShimazu clan (1601–1874)
Government of Japan (1874–present)
Open to
the public		Yes
ConditionRuins
Site history
Built1601
Built byMatsudaira Iehisa
Demolished1874
Garrison information
OccupantsDaimyō of Satsuma
Japanese name
Kanji鹿児島城
Hiraganaかごしまじょう
Katakanaカゴシマジョウ

History

Kagoshima Castle was constructed in 1601 by Matsudaira Iehisa, head of the Shimazu clan and the first daimyō of the Satsuma Domain, during the early Edo period. A year earlier, Iehisa's father Shimazu Yoshihiro, one of the daimyō of the western alliance opposed to Tokugawa Ieyasu, was defeated at the Battle of Sekigahara. The castle was built shortly after the defeat and in the severe political tension with Ieyasu. Kagoshima Castle is notable for the small scale and fairly poor quality as a main castle of one of the richest domains in Japan. It is said that Shimazu was afraid of giving the Tokugawa an excuse to attack Shimazu territory by making too large a castle.

Kagoshima Castle was destroyed in a fire in 1874 and not rebuilt, and is now only ruins with only the castle's moats and stone walls remaining.[1] Otemon Gate was reconstructed in 2018. Reimeikan, Kagoshima Prefectural Center for Historical Material is located on the site.

Access

Literature
  • Benesch, Oleg and Ran Zwigenberg (2019). Japan's Castles: Citadels of Modernity in War and Peace. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 374. ISBN 9781108481946.
  • Schmorleitz, Morton S. (1974). Castles in Japan. Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Co. ISBN 0-8048-1102-4.


References
  1. "日本100名城 鹿児島城" (in Japanese). 日本城郭協会. Retrieved 25 July 2019.

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