- Type
- Castle
- Origins
- 1583 · 16th century per Wikidata: founding, first mention or construction
- Location
- Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan
- Commissioned by
- Sakuma Morimasa
- Coordinates
- 36.5643°, 136.6592°
History
The first castle was built by the general Sakuma Morimasa on the site of a stronghold of the Buddhist Ikkō-ikki movement captured in 1580. In 1583 it was taken over by Maeda Toshiie, whose clan ruled the Kaga domain from here for almost three centuries – the richest domain in Edo-period Japan. The keep burned down after a lightning strike in 1602 and was never rebuilt, and further fires ravaged the castle in 1631 and 1759. After the Meiji reforms the army took over the site, and from 1949 to 1995 it housed a university. Since 2001 the castle buildings have been reconstructed one by one using traditional methods.
What to see
The original 18th-century Ishikawa-mon gate leads into the castle, beyond which stand the rebuilt timber Hishi-yagura turrets and the long Gojukken Nagaya storehouse, linked by a covered passage. Walls from different periods show a range of stone-laying techniques, earning the castle the name museum of stone walls. Right next door lies Kenroku-en, one of the three most celebrated gardens in Japan.
Wikipedia article Official website Wikidata Q511412
Popularity: articles about this site in 21 Wikimedia projects (Wikipedia language editions and others).