Kagoshima Castle

31°35′54.55″N 130°33′16.60″E / 31.5984861°N 130.5546111°E / 31.5984861; 130.5546111TypeJapanese castleSite informationControlled byShimazu clan (1601–1874)
Government of Japan (1874–present)Open to
the publicYesConditionRuins; Otemon Gate rebuilt in 2018Site historyBuilt1601Built byMatsudaira IehisaDemolished1874Garrison informationOccupantsDaimyō of Satsuma

Kagoshima Castle (鹿児島城, Kagoshima-jō), also known as Tsurumaru Castle, was a Japanese castle located in Kagoshima, Kagoshima Prefecture.^[1]

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.^[2] Otemon Gate was reconstructed in 2018. Reimeikan, Kagoshima Prefectural Center for Historical Material is located on the site.

Access

• Kagoshima Station of Kagoshima Main Line

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.
• De Lange, William (2021). An Encyclopedia of Japanese Castles. Groningen: Toyo Press. pp. 600 pages. ISBN 978-9492722300.
• Schmorleitz, Morton S. (1974). Castles in Japan. Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Co. ISBN 0-8048-1102-4.

References