Tamaru Castle: A Southern Court Stronghold and Oda-Period Castle in Japan
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.3
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Japan
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Oda regime
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page16 sections
History
Tamaru Castle is a Japanese castle in Tamaki, Japan, founded in 1336 as a Southern Court stronghold by Kitabatake Chikafusa, his son, and associated local religious and military figures. The Southern Court and Northern Court were rival imperial governments during Japan’s Nanboku-cho period, which lasted from 1336 to 1392. The castle was built near Ise Grand Shrine to protect the eastern approaches to Yoshino, where the Southern Court emperor had taken refuge, and to control access to the Ise and Kumano shrines.
Its position at a junction of the Ise Honkaido and Kumano Kaido pilgrimage routes gave Tamaru a strategic role. It became the Kitabatake clan’s first base in Ise and later an administrative center for their rule as provincial governors. In 1342, forces of Ashikaga Takauji, the founder of the Ashikaga shogunate and leader of the Northern Court side, captured the castle. The Kitabatake forces withdrew to Sakanai Castle before later rebuilding Tamaru and resuming control. The castle’s history during part of the intervening period remains unclear.
Kitabatake Rule and Medieval Conflict
Tamaru remained under Kitabatake control during the Muromachi period. In the fifteenth century, Aisu Tadayuki occupied the castle, adopted a member of the Kitabatake family as his heir, and renamed the site Tamamaru Palace. The Yamada Sanpo faction attacked it in 1465.
After the Kitabatake clan moved its principal base to northern Ise, a member of a Kitabatake cadet branch entered Tamaru Castle in 1520 and adopted the Tamaru surname, establishing the Tamaru line. Retainers killed him in 1526, and the castle then passed to another member of the Kitabatake ruling family.
Oda Control and Sixteenth-Century Rebuilding
During Oda Nobunaga’s invasion of Ise in 1569, Tamaru Naomasa surrendered the castle to Oda Nobukatsu, Nobunaga’s second son and the adopted heir of the Kitabatake family. Naomasa subsequently served Nobukatsu. In the mid-1570s, Tamaru Castle was extensively rebuilt as Nobukatsu’s residence and as a principal base for Oda control in Ise. The work added stone walls and a three-story principal tower, or tenshu, a Japanese castle’s main tower. Because it was completed shortly before Oda Nobunaga’s construction of Azuchi Castle, Tamaru’s tower is regarded as a possible first Japanese castle tower of this type.
In 1576, at Nobunaga’s direction, Nobukatsu summoned prominent members of the Kitabatake family and its cadet branches to a banquet at Tamaru Castle. They were killed there in the incident known as the Mise Incident. The castle tower burned in 1580, and Nobukatsu moved his residence to Matsugashima Castle. After Nobunaga’s assassination in 1582, Tamaru Naomasa allied with Toyotomi Hideyoshi and, together with Gamo Ujisato, attacked Matsugashima Castle.
Following the Battle of Komaki and Nagakute in 1584, Tamaru Castle came under Ujisato’s control. Naomasa returned to the castle and rebuilt structures damaged by the fire, although the extent of this work is unclear. In 1590, Ujisato and Naomasa were transferred to northeastern Japan, and Inaba Shigemichi became castle governor.
Early Modern Administration and Later History
Inaba Michimichi became lord of Tamaru Castle in 1600 after gaining recognition for his service at the Battle of Sekigahara. The principal buildings and stonework of Iwade Castle, which was abolished at the same time, were transferred to Tamaru, and the castle was renovated. Michimichi’s son, Inaba Norimichi, succeeded him in 1607.
Tamaru territory was added to Tsu Domain in 1617. From 1619, it formed part of Kii Domain under Tokugawa Yorinobu. Yorinobu appointed his hereditary karo, or senior hereditary retainer, Kuno Muneshige as lord of Tamaru Castle, granted him 10,000 koku, a historical measure of domain revenue based conventionally on rice production, and placed him in charge of the 60,000-koku Tamaru territory. The Kuno family ruled Tamaru for eight generations until the Meiji Restoration. Because the family also held office in Wakayama, relatives served as resident castle governors and administered the territory.
The castle and its domain became one setting for a dispute between the shogunate’s Yamada magistrate jurisdiction and Kii Domain’s Tamaru territory during the tenure of the prominent Edo-period magistrate Ooka Tadasuke. Most of the castle buildings were demolished during the early Meiji period. The ruins became a Mie Prefecture Historic Site in 1953, and Tamaru Castle was selected as site number 154 in the Continued Top 100 Japanese Castles in 2017.
Remains
Tamaru Castle occupies a roughly circular area about 400 meters in diameter on a hill between the Kushidagawa and Miyagawa rivers. Its western half is slightly higher and formed the central defensive area. The site is a hirayama-style castle, combining a hilltop defensive core with facilities extending onto lower ground. The surviving landscape contains the principal and secondary enclosures, stone walls, earthworks, moat cuts, and both water-filled and dry moats.
Central Enclosures
Honmaru
The Honmaru, meaning the principal enclosure, is a rectangular area approximately 100 by 50 meters. Stone walls surround it, with projecting sections designed to obstruct attackers. The tower foundation occupies the northern edge, while entrances are placed on the east and southeast sides. The southeastern entrance connected with the Ni-no-maru by an earthen bridge.
Ni-no-maru
The Ni-no-maru, or second enclosure, lies south of the Honmaru. A dry moat and bridge separated the two areas. Its gates used a masugata arrangement, a defensive entrance passing through a square-shaped walled compound. Stone walls extend along the eastern and southern sides, while cut slopes defend the northern and western sides. A winding approach road climbs from the south, and the western side contains an additional attached enclosure.
Kitanomaru
Kitanomaru lies north of the Honmaru. Stone walls run along its eastern side and part of its northern side, while cut slopes occupy other edges. A dry-moat cut lies to the north, and an earthen rampart extends to the west. A cut passage on the southwest side may have served as an entrance, although that interpretation is uncertain.
Tower Foundation and Defensive Earthworks
Principal Tower Foundation
The foundation of the three-story tower forms a square base approximately 25 meters across at the northern edge of the Honmaru. The tower was added during Nobukatsu’s sixteenth-century rebuilding of the castle. Its foundation survives among the stone walls and enclosure remains.
Moats and Slopes
Moats enclosed the castle, including water-filled defenses and dry moats on the northern and western sides. The surviving earthworks include inner and outer moats, dry-moat cuts, and cut slopes, preserving elements of the castle’s defensive organization.
Relocated Castle Buildings
Sannomaru Reception Hall
Sannomaru, the third enclosure, served as a palace compound during the Edo period. Its former inner reception hall was removed from the castle during the Meiji period, transferred to another location, and later moved again to the present castle park. The building preserves elements associated with the former palace use of Sannomaru.
Fujimi Gate
The Fujimi Gate was also relocated away from the castle during the Meiji period and later re-erected in the castle park. Together with the transferred reception hall, it retains architectural elements connected with the former castle buildings.
Present Castle Area
The former castle area is now partly used as a park. The surroundings of the Honmaru have been developed as a cherry-tree park, Kitanomaru is occupied by a castle-associated Inari shrine, and parts of the former Sannomaru contain Tamaki Town Hall and Tamaki Town Tamaki Junior High School. The surviving remains combine features of the medieval Southern Court castle with those of the later Oda-period early modern castle.
