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 |
| 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 (駿府城, 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 Japanese National Historic Monument, and a local history museum has been built within the site of the former main bailey.
Notes
See also
References
- Schmorleitz, Morton S. (1974). Castles in Japan. Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Co. pp. 144–145. ISBN 0-8084-1102-4.
{{cite book}}: Check|isbn=value: checksum (help) - 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 4770029543.
- Turnbull, Stephen (2003). Japanese Castles 1540-1640. Osprey Publishing. p. 64 pages. ISBN 1841764299.