Yokosuka Castle

Yokosuka Castle
横須賀城
Kakegawa, Shizuoka prefecture, Japan
Ruins of Yokosuka Castle
Aerial photograph of Yokosuka Castle Park in 1988
Coordinates 34°41′8″N 137°58′16″E / 34.68556°N 137.97111°E / 34.68556; 137.97111Coordinates: 34°41′8″N 137°58′16″E / 34.68556°N 137.97111°E / 34.68556; 137.97111
Type Hirayama-style Japanese castle
Site information
Open to
the public		 yes
Condition ruins,
Site history
Built 1580s
Built by Ōsuga Yasutaka
In use Edo period
Demolished 1869

Yokosuka Castle (横須賀城, Yokosuka-jō) was a Japanese castle in Tōtōmi Province (present day Shizuoka Prefecture), Japan from the late Muromachi period to the Meiji Restoration. It was the capital of Yokosuka Domain during the Tokugawa shogunate of the Edo period.

History

During the Muromachi period, the Imagawa clan ruled Suruga and Tōtōmi Provinces from their base at Sunpu (modern-day Shizuoka City). After Imagawa Yoshimoto was defeated at the Battle of Okehazama, Tōtōmi passed to Tokugawa Ieyasu, who ordered his retainer Ōsuga Yasutaka to build a castle at Yokosuka, on the coast south of Kakegawa in 1580. During the Edo period, Yokosuka Castle passed through a number of daimyō before coming under the control of the Nishio clan in 1682, under whose control it remained until the Meiji Restoration in 1868.

Yokosuka Castle was noteworthy in that it used rounded boulders from the Tenryū River in the walls of its moats, instead of cut stone. The keep was a four-story, three-roof structure. The keep was destroyed in an earthquake in 1707, and was not rebuilt.

Today, a portion of the moats and earthen walls remain. The site is a designated Japanese National Historic Site, and a local history museum has been built within the site of the former main bailey.[1]

Notes

  1. ↑ "Castles in Kakegawa". Kakegawa City Official Website. Retrieved 15 November 2015.

See also

References

  • Schmorleitz, Morton S. (1974). Castles in Japan. Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Co. pp. 144–145. ISBN 0-8048-1102-4.
  • Motoo, Hinago (1986). Japanese Castles. Tokyo: Kodansha. p. 200 pages. ISBN 0-87011-766-1.
  • Mitchelhill, Jennifer (2004). Castles of the Samurai: Power and Beauty. Tokyo: Kodansha. p. 112 pages. ISBN 4-7700-2954-3.
  • Turnbull, Stephen (2003). Japanese Castles 1540-1640. Osprey Publishing. p. 64 pages. ISBN 1-84176-429-9.
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