Nobeoka Castle: A Hirayama Castle and Domain Government Center in Japan
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.1
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Japan
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- Eras represented
- Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Tokugawa
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page8 sections
History
Nobeoka Castle is a Japanese castle in Nobeoka, Miyazaki Prefecture, built in the hirayama style, a form that combined a hilltop stronghold with lowland compounds and moats. Takahashi Mototane began its construction in 1601, after the Battle of Sekigahara, and completed it in autumn 1603. Originally called Agata Castle and also known as Kamei Castle, it later took the name Nobeoka. The site developed into the administrative center of the Agata domain, later called the Nobeoka domain, and a regional base for the Usuki district.
From Agata Castle to Nobeoka
The Agata area had long been controlled by the Tsuchimochi clan, whose castle residence existed before the expansion that created Nobeoka Castle. This site is distinct from medieval and Sengoku-period Matsuo Castle in Matsuyama, which has sometimes been mistakenly identified with it. The plan of the new castle was attributed to Kanda Iki no kami. A transfer ceremony from Matsuo Castle and a performance of Noh, a classical Japanese masked drama, marked the establishment of the new stronghold.
Takahashi Mototane also founded the castle town. Its basic form continued into modern Nobeoka, with samurai residential streets at Honkoji, Kitakoji, Sakurakoji, and Tenjin-koji. Commercial districts developed east of the castle, and merchants were invited from various parts of Japan. The Takahashi clan governed the domain from 1587 until Mototane was dispossessed by the shogunate in 1613 for sheltering a criminal.
Successive domain governments
The Arima clan entered the domain in 1614. During Arima Kiyosumi’s rule, the clan was held responsible for a large peasant flight and uprising in the domain in the previous year, and in 1691 it was transferred to Itoigawa in Echigo. The Miura clan arrived in 1692, when Miura Akihiro moved from Mibu in Shimotsuke with a domain assessed at more than 23,000 koku, a historical measure of productive capacity conventionally linked to rice yield. He was the first fudai daimyo, a hereditary lord whose family had served the Tokugawa shogunate or its predecessors, in the province of Hyuga. The Miura were transferred to Kariya in Mikawa in 1712.
The Makino clan followed, holding a domain assessed at more than 80,000 koku. The second Makino lord was transferred to Kasama in Hitachi in 1747. The Naito clan then came from Taira in Iwaki with a domain of more than 70,000 koku and governed Nobeoka until the Meiji Restoration. Throughout the Edo period, the castle remained the seat of domain government.
Alterations, abandonment, and later recognition
Arima Yasuzumi, a daimyo, or territorial lord, carried out major alterations during the Meireki era. In 1655 he built a three-story tower that served in place of a main keep. The tower burned in 1682 or 1683 and was never rebuilt. In 1870, the new government approved an application to use the castle site as a medicinal garden, and the castle was abandoned.
The western bailey, a fortified enclosure within a castle, later became the private property of the Naito clan. The clan donated it to Nobeoka in 1881, and it was used as the Naito Memorial Hall until an air raid destroyed the building in 1945. Religious institutions also formed part of Takahashi Mototane’s administration. Myosenji was founded as the Takahashi family mortuary temple and as a Jodo Shinshu center, a major branch of Japanese Pure Land Buddhism, for the Usuki district, especially the Takachiho region. Koshoji was rebuilt, Sairinji, the predecessor of Daiunji, was renamed from the former Horaizan Kinsenji, and the former Chofukuji at Matsuo Castle was revived as Todaiji after Matsuo Castle was destroyed.
Atago Shrine was traditionally moved from the summit of Mount Nobeoka, now called Shiroyama, to Kasasayama during construction of Agata Castle. The mountain subsequently became known as Atagoyama. In 2017, Nobeoka Castle was selected as site number 195 in the Continued Top 100 Japanese Castles and was also designated a municipal historic site. A wooden model of the castle discovered in Sakai, Fukui Prefecture, was donated to Sakai City.
Remains
Hilltop layout and defenses
Nobeoka Castle occupied a central isolated hill, Mount Nobeoka, now Shiroyama, on a sandbar between the Gokase and Ose rivers. Its hirayama layout combined the main castle with a western bailey. Within the main castle, the main, second, and third baileys were arranged around the hill. The two rivers served as natural outer moats, while inner moats and stone walls strengthened the compounds. Surviving remains consist chiefly of these stone walls, together with remnants of water moats, and the reconstructed North Main Gate is associated with the site.
Records describe a kitchen, great hall, bow study, and gate watchtower. A map of Hyuga from the Keicho era also depicts several watchtowers and unusual three-story buildings, giving a picture of the castle during Takahashi Mototane’s rule.
Sennin Goroshi wall
The wall called Sennin Goroshi, or “Killing a Thousand People,” stands in the second bailey. Tradition holds that it was arranged so that removing one stone would bring down the entire wall and kill a thousand enemy soldiers. The wall is approximately 19 meters high and 70 meters long in total, while its projecting corner has a diagonal slope of about 22 meters. It was built mainly from porphyritic granite, sandstone, and Aso welded tuff, and its surface carries various inscribed marks.
Main-keep platform
A bell tower now occupies the former main-keep platform. Its bell still announces the time to local residents six times each day. The poet Wakayama Bokusui wrote about the sound, linking the surviving feature with the later cultural memory of the castle.
