Tanabe Castle: A Sengoku and Edo-Period Castle in Japan
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 3.7
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Japan
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Oda regime, Tokugawa
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page12 sections
History
Tanabe Castle is a Japanese flatland castle in Maizuru, Japan, built in 1582 during the Sengoku period, Japan’s late medieval era of warfare among competing regional lords. Also called Maizuru Castle, or Bugaku-jō, it became an administrative center in Tango Province and later served as the seat of the Tanabe domain.
From provincial center to castle
The castle occupied the site of the Hatta administrative center, which had served as the headquarters of Tango Province under the Kamakura and Muromachi shogunates. The Isshiki clan, the provincial governors of Tango, administered the province from this lowland complex. Its defenses were limited, so Takebeyama Castle on nearby Mount Takebe supported it during wartime.
In 1578, Hosokawa Fujitaka, also known as Yusai, defeated Isshiki Yoshimichi on the orders of Oda Nobunaga and brought Tango under his control. Fujitaka first used Miyazu Castle as his residence. He later built Tanabe Castle at the former provincial administrative site, renamed the locality Tanabe, and selected the new castle as his administrative center because it lay close to Kyoto and near an important transport route. After retiring from political life, he installed his son, Hosokawa Tadaoki, at Tanabe.
The siege of 1600
Tanabe Castle became involved in the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, the conflict that decided whether Tokugawa Ieyasu’s Eastern Army or Ishida Mitsunari’s Western Army would prevail in Japan. Tadaoki rejected Mitsunari’s invitation to join the Western Army and supported Ieyasu.
Fujitaka had retired by then, but he burned Miyazu Castle because he judged it unable to withstand an attack by the Western Army. He entered Tanabe Castle and organized its defense. A Western Army force of approximately 15,000 men, commanded by Onogi Shigekatsu and Maeda Shigekatsu, besieged the castle for about 50 days, or roughly two months.
During the siege, Fujitaka feared that his copy of the Kokin-denju transmission writings would be destroyed. These writings concerned the traditional transmission of knowledge about the classical waka anthology known as the Kokin Wakashū. He therefore presented the copy to Emperor Go-Yōzei. Concerned that Fujitaka might be killed, the emperor mediated an end to the attack. Fujitaka opened the castle, went to Maeda Shigekatsu’s Kameyama Castle in Tamba, and later moved to Kyoto, where he spent the rest of his life.
Rebuilding under the Kyōgoku
After the Battle of Sekigahara, Tadaoki was transferred to the Kokura domain in Buzen Province. Kyōgoku Takatomo received Tango Province, assessed at 123,000 koku, a historical unit used to calculate a domain’s agricultural revenue. He temporarily entered Tanabe Castle but rebuilt Miyazu Castle and moved his base there. The buildings at Tanabe were reportedly demolished at this time in connection with the one-province, one-castle policy.
By Takatomo’s will, his heir Takahiro received the Miyazu domain of 75,000 koku, his second son Takamitsu received the Tanabe domain of 35,000 koku, and his adopted son Takanobu received the Mineyama domain of 13,000 koku. Kyōgoku Takamitsu, the first lord of the Tanabe domain, restored the stone walls and substantially rebuilt the ruined castle. The rebuilt complex became the administrative center of the Tanabe, or Maizuru, domain.
The Makino domain and the Meiji transformation
The Kyōgoku family ruled for three generations before being transferred to Toyooka Domain in Tajima Province in 1668. Makino Chikashige then entered the Tanabe domain, assessed at 35,000 koku, and the Makino family retained the castle until the Meiji Restoration. Under the Makino, the main gate and other gates and stone walls were reconstructed or extensively repaired, while the basic layout and fortifications remained substantially unchanged.
In 1869, the return of domain registers to the emperor led to the renaming of Tanabe Domain as Maizuru Domain. The change avoided confusion with Kii-Tanabe Domain. The new name came from the castle’s alternate name, Maizuru Castle, and Maizuru subsequently became associated with the city.
After the Meiji Restoration, Tanabe Castle fell into disrepair and was demolished during the 1870s. Its moats were filled in, and the former grounds became Maizuru Park. A reconstructed two-story yagura, a fortified watchtower or tower-like defensive structure, was created in 1940 for use as the Shokokan museum. In 1992, a replica main gate was built at the site of the former outer moat, where it now houses the Tanabe Castle Museum. The castle site is designated as a Maizuru municipal historic site.
Remains
Setting and castle layout
Tanabe Castle was an outline-style flatland castle with an unusual spiral plan, attributed to the restricted space between two rivers. The Isatsu River bounded the site on the east and the Takano River on the west, while Maizuru Bay lay to the north. A swamp in front of the castle extended along the southern side, giving the lowland complex natural defenses in every direction.
The rebuilt castle was centered on the Ninomaru, the second defended enclosure of a Japanese castle. A lord’s residence stood south of the Ninomaru, and a two-story yagura stood to its north. The Ninomaru contained two yagura gates, while the Sannomaru, the third defended enclosure, contained three. The reconstructed arrangement included five fortified gates, with the principal gate, additional gates, stone walls, and moats forming the main defensive infrastructure.
Surviving and reconstructed features
Stone walls and former tower foundation
Sections of the castle’s stone walls survive within Maizuru Park, together with the stone foundation of the former two-story yagura. These remains belong to the defensive and administrative complex rebuilt under Kyōgoku Takamitsu and maintained under the Makino family. The original keep structure is unknown.
Shokokan yagura
The present park contains a reconstructed two-story yagura known as the Shokokan. Created in 1940, it was intended for use as a museum and represents one of the castle’s tower structures. Its reconstruction forms part of the surviving and recreated architectural features distributed across the former castle grounds.
Reconstructed main gate
A replica main gate was reconstructed in 1992 at the site of the former outer moat. The building now houses the Tanabe Castle Museum, linking the modern museum space with the location of the castle’s principal entrance and outer defensive boundary.
Garden and moats
A garden survives among the historic remains within Maizuru Park. The castle’s moats were part of its original defensive infrastructure, but they were filled in after the castle fell into disrepair and no longer exist as open water features. The garden, stonework, former tower foundation, and reconstructed buildings are distributed across the park on the site of the former castle grounds.
Nearby sites
