- Type
- Castle
- Origins
- 1455 · 15th century per Wikidata: founding, first mention or construction
- Location
- Aichi Prefecture, Japan
- Architect
- Hisashi Kido
- Coordinates
- 34.9564°, 137.1589°
History
Tradition says the first stronghold here was built in 1455 by Saigō Tsuguyori, and in the 16th century the castle was taken over and enlarged by the Matsudaira clan. In 1543 it saw the birth of Takechiyo, later known as Tokugawa Ieyasu, although he spent much of his childhood as a hostage and only regained Okazaki after the Battle of Okehazama in 1560. Once Ieyasu became shogun, the birthplace of the dynasty's founder was entrusted to loyal families such as the Honda. A three-storey keep was raised in 1617 and pulled down after the Meiji reforms in the 1870s. The present reinforced-concrete keep was rebuilt in 1959 in the image of the old one.
What to see
The rebuilt keep, with a museum on the castle and the Tokugawa family, stands in Okazaki Park among surviving stretches of stone walls and moats. The park also holds the well said to have supplied the water for baby Ieyasu's first bath, and next to it is the Mikawa Bushi no Yakata Ieyasu-kan museum devoted to the samurai of Mikawa. In spring the park is one of the area's favourite cherry-blossom spots.
Wikipedia article Official website Wikidata Q1013445
Popularity: articles about this site in 20 Wikimedia projects (Wikipedia language editions and others).