- Type
- Castle
- Origins
- c. 1190 · 12th century per Wikidata: founding, first mention or construction
- Location
- Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan
- Coordinates
- 36.3728°, 140.4783°
History
The first stronghold on the plateau between Lake Senba and the Naka River was built in the late 12th century by Baba Sukemoto, and in 1416 it was taken over by the Edo clan. In 1590 the Satake clan seized the castle, made Mito their seat and strengthened its defences, but after the Battle of Sekigahara they were transferred to Akita in 1602. From 1609 it was held by Tokugawa Yorifusa, Ieyasu's eleventh son and founder of the Mito line, one of the three branches of the family eligible to provide a shogun. His successor Tokugawa Mitsukuni commissioned the great chronicle “Dai Nihon-shi”, and in 1841 Tokugawa Nariaki opened the Kōdōkan domain school in the third bailey. The castle buildings were pulled down in the Meiji era, and the three-storey turret that served as its keep burned in an air raid in 1945.
What to see
The castle never had stone walls; its defences were deep dry moats and earth ramparts, which still cut through the city centre. A school now occupies the former main bailey, and beside it stands the only surviving original building, the Yakui-mon gate. In recent years the Ōte-mon gate and a corner turret of the second bailey have been rebuilt in timber, and nearby visitors can tour the buildings of the Kōdōkan school with its garden full of plum trees.
Wikipedia article Wikidata Q848997
Popularity: articles about this site in 11 Wikimedia projects (Wikipedia language editions and others).