Interactive Tour of Tsurugajo

Aizu Wakamatsu’s Famous Castle
[1384-, 1590-, 1639-1874, 1965-present]

These are the notes that I would use to tell the story of Tsurugajo when I did a tour of the castle. The questions were used to make the tour more of an interactive activity than a lecture.

This castle was originally the office of the leader of the local clan. However, the castle that you see today is just one reproduction in a long line of castles that have stood on this ground. (Most castles in Japan are reproductions of the originals which were destroyed in battle or in restorations.)

鶴ヶ城・若松城

TSURUGAJOU or WAKAMATSUJOU
You will hear the castle being called both Tsurugajou and Wakamatsujou. Originally the castle was named Kurokawa Yakata by Ashina Naomori. When Gamou Ujisato reformed the castle, he named it both Tsurugajou and Wakamatsujou. In 1934, when the castle grounds were designated as a national historical site, the name on the register was Wakamatsujou. Both Tsurugajou and Wakamatsujou are now in current use, but almost everyone refers to the current castle Tsurugajou. (Sometimes the ruins of the older castles are referred to as the ruins of Wakamatsujou.) Tsuru means crane.

葦名直盛・蒲生氏郷・加藤明成・若松市

(1384 – ASHINA NAOMORI) The original castle was built by a feudal lord named Naomori Ashina. The moat dates from this time, but there were no rock walls.
(1590 – GAMOU UJISATO) Ujisato Gamou added the walls, a seven-storey castle, and several interior buildings.
(1639 – KATOU AKINARI) Akinari Katou rebuilt the castle with five storeys and added the walls and gate at Ootemon. The castle built by Ujisato Gamou was damaged in an earthquake in 1611, necessitating this new building.
(1965 – WAKAMATSU-SHI) The city of Wakamatsu rebuilt the castle which was demolished by the Meiji Government in 1874 after the Boshin Civil War.

QUESTION: Why are there marks on the wall?

QUESTION: Why is the gate placed here?

大手門

OOTEMON
The main entrance of the castle used to be where ROUKABASHI (the red bridge) is. However, during the Edo period, the main route to Tokyo (Edo) was changed from Seaburiyama to Takizawa Touge. At that time, Akinari Kato changed the main entrance of the castle to Ootemon when he fortified the area in front of Taikomon and Tsubakizaka. Ootemon means “main entrance”. Originally, the area in front of Tsubakizaka was just an open field, but Kato added rock walls and a gate called Ootemon. You can see marks in the rock walls where the gate used to stand. An example of such a gate is KUROGANEMON on the other side of the castle. Three pillars support each side of the gate. The gate is placed in a corner so that it cannot be attacked directly. However, this gate can be protected from several spots within the castle — on top of the rock walls, across the moat, etc. Enemy who tried to attack this gate would quickly find themselves surrounded and forced to jump into the moat where they can be easily attacked. Right now there are a lot of trees in this area, but during the Edo period, they wouldn’t have been here. The view would have been clearer. The walls that surround the castle not only protect the castle, but serve as a vantage point to check the actions of the enemy. The castle was put to great use during the Boshin Civil War of 1868. It is a great marvel that the structures designed during the peaceful Edo period could be put to use in a war over two hundred years after they had been built.

出丸

DEMARU
A demaru is an open space that can be used to reinforce defences. At Tsurugajou, there are four demaru (Kitademaru, Nishidemaru, Ninomaru, Sannomaru) and one Honmaru (the innermost circle). If you add all of this space together, you will get 290,000 square meters, which is six times larger than the Tokyo Dome. The walls that surround the demaru are the oldest remaining part of the castle.

若松城跡

WAKAMATSU JOUSHI
These walls are known as Wakamatsujoushi, which means “the remains of Wakamatsu Castle”.

QUESTION: How much did Endo buy the castle for? (Find the answer on the sign board.)

遠藤敬止

ENDO KEISHI
In 1890, a man named Keishi Endo bought all 28.935 hectares of the castle ruins for 2500 yen and donated them to the local lord, Matsudaira. A monument stands on the castle grounds to commemorate Endo’s generosity. The castle grounds might not have been preserved without his kind act.

QUESTION: Why is this slope called tsubakizaka?

QUESTION: Why would they build the steps so roughly?

椿坂・横手坂

TSUBAKIZAKA or YOKOTEZAKA
After entering Ootemon, you will pass through an area called Kitademaru and come upon a slope called TSUBAKIZAKA or YOKOTEZAKA. A tsubaki is a camellia (a kind of flower) and saka is a slope. When a camellia wilts the flower flops over heavily and rather ungracefully (unlike the cherry blossom petals that float gently in the breeze when they have finished blossoming). The camellia has been likened to a person who has had his head lopped off. For this reason, the camellia is not a very auspicious flower. This slope is called tsubakizaka because you had to get permission to traverse it. If you started climbing the slope without permission, you were likely to end up being killed, rather ungracefully (and flop over like the camellia). The slope is now covered with asphalt which was put there for the National Sport Meet (Kokutai). Underneath the asphalt, the slope is divided into two sections, one for people and one for horses. The section for people took up about three quarters of the area of the slope and was covered in uneven log steps. Because the steps were quite roughly and unevenly made, an enemy would have to look down to traverse them. This made it an easy slope to defend. Ootemon was not created until 1639 when Katou Akinari changed the main entrance from ROUKABASHI. So, before Ootemon was created, this slope would have been one of the main access points to the castle. The rocks in these walls are the biggest that you will find on the castle grounds. They were all taken from the same mountain, Keizan in Aizu Wakamatsu, so they are all of a similar colour and texture.

会津風土記

AIZU FUDOKI
A fudoki is a book that describes various details of an area including climate, topographical features, and daily life (perhaps comparable to an almanac). One edition of the Aizu Fudoki includes information about the construction of Tsurugajou.
QUESTION: Why would they call it the rock of the amusing girl?

遊女石

YUUJOISHI
The largest rock in the castle walls is located at the top of Tsubakizaka. It weighs over 7 tonnes (2000 GAN in old Japanese measurements) and is called YUUJOISHI. According to an edition of the Aizu Fudoki, a beautiful woman was placed on top of the 7 tonne stone to sing and dance and entertain the men while they transported the stone. Because of this, that particular stone is called “Yuujoishi” or the “rock of the amusing girl”.
BONUS: Find examples of usetsusakou on the castle grounds.

右折左行

USETSU SAKOU As you can imagine, it would not be very sensible for enemy forces to be able to enter Honmaru directly. In order to confuse the enemy, the walls were built so that you have to turn right then go left. This style of castle is called “usetsu sakou” or “turn right, go left”. This was an added defence mechanism for the castle. This rule holds for the three entrances to Honmaru (Nishidemaru, Kitademaru, Ninomaru).

太鼓門

TAIKOMON
One of the gates is called “taikomon”. A taiko is a large drum and mon means gate. At the top of the gate was a huge taiko drum with a diameter of approximately 1.8 meters. It was brought over from Korea in the 1500s. The drum was probably used to announce the arrival of various visitors, such as the local lord. It also might have been used to warn the people in the castle of an approaching enemy. The tree near the site of the gate would not have been here. The drum was probably damaged during the Boshin Civil War as no trace of it remains.

本丸

HONMARU
Honmaru is the central area of the castle grounds, the area that contains the castle itself.

BONUS: Find examples of the different kinds of ishigaki on the castle grounds. Extra points for naming the style of construction.

石垣

ISHIGAKI
Three types of rock walls (ishigaki) can be seen at Tsurugajou. The first, and oldest is NOZURAZUMI (literally, “field facade construction”). Gamou Ujisato used this style of building to make the walls that support the castle itself. This style uses rocks that have been taken from rivers and they remain in their natural shapes (they are not cut into squares, for example). The advantage of nozurazumi is that it allows water to seep through the rocks without getting stuck. This makes the wall strong against the elements. The second oldest style is UCHIKOMIHAGI (literally, “hammer and put together joints”). The base was made of large rocks then smaller rocks were stuffed into the gaps. The larger rocks were shaped with tools (hammers), so they would stay together properly. This provides a very strong base. There were no machines for lifting the rocks, so the workers would build a slope, and roll the rocks up to the top, then pile up more sand. As the walls got higher, the slope got longer. They would eventually remove the dirt from the slope and grind the surface of the wall to get rid of parts that stuck out. Even now, you can see the vertical traces of this cutting and grinding that they did in the Edo period. This style of construction tends to trap water, so there is a possibility that the wall will succumb to water damage at some point. The advantage to this type of wall is that it looks better than the nozurazumi style, which looks quite primitive in comparison. An example of this style can be seen in the walls near TAIKOMON. The third and newest style is KIRIKOMIHAGI (literally “cut and put together joints”) and a good example of it can be seen near Kuroganemon. In this style, rocks are cut and shaped to fit together perfectly.

BONUS: Find examples of the different kinds of mushabashiri on the castle grounds. Extra points for naming the style of construction.

武者走り

MUSHABASHIRI
“Musha” means samurai and “hashiri” means rushing or running. When you put them together, they become mushabashiri, which is the word used to describe the stairs in the walls around the castle. These stairs were used by the defending samurai to climb up the walls in case of an attack. There are three styles of mushabashiri. The rock wall just inside honmaru is made in the “AWASEZAKA” or “AIZAKA” style, which means a pair of stairs facing each other in a V-shape. The stairs on one side of the V have been repaired, but the other set remain unrepaired. This style allows lots of soldiers to run up to the top of the wall quickly. (The tree on top of the rock wall at the top of the awasezaka is a keyaki (zelkova) which was not planted, but just started growing one year.) Another type is “GANGIZAKA” which is a long, steep staircase. The stairs that lead to Kanetsukidou (the bell tower) are a good example of this style. The third style is “KASANEZAKA”, but there are no examples of this style on the grounds of Tsurugajou.

QUESTION: Is this building a shrine or a temple?

鶴ヶ城稲荷神社

TSURUGAJOU INARI JINJA
This shrine is for people who need an extra bit of help with their schoolwork and tests. Just before “test season” in March, hundreds of school-children and their parents flock to this shrine to pray for good results. Foxes are said to be servants of the gods, so this shrine and the Kasama Jinja located on the other side of the castle are sometimes mistakenly called “Kitsune Jinja” or Fox Shrine. For some reason, foxes are said to like aburaage (fried tofu), so many people leave some after they make their wish.

QUESTION: How is this castle different from European castles?

帯郭

OBIKURUWA
The commander controlled his troops from inside a thin, rectangular area called the “obikuruwa” which means “belt-like enclosure”. The obikuruwa at Tsurugajou is very similar to the same structure in Osaka Castle. This area is the last line of defence before the enemy reaches the weaker buildings within the castle walls. Japanese castles often had very strong stone outer walls, but very weak, wooden buildings on the inside. This is in direct contrast with European castles, which often consist of one large, strong building surrounded by a moat.

女性の強さ

WEAK BUILDINGS, STRONG WOMEN The emperor’s forces (SEIGUN) bombed the castle with cannons from Odayama. Occasionally, there would be as many as 2000 cannons firing. However, the castle and the buildings in the courtyard rarely burned down. The reason for this was that putting out fires was the job of the women at the castle. The moment a cannon landed, women would rush out with wet blankets, futons, or straw mats to cover the cannon before it exploded.

本丸の入口

ENTRANCE OF HONMARU
There used to be an old rock wall here but it was taken down. It also follow the rule of USETSUSAKOU.

帯郭の石垣

WALL ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE OBIKURUWA On the top of this wall, there used to be wooden/metal wall through which soldiers could fire their weapons.

QUESTION: Who is Kayano Gonbei? (They will only be able to answer if they have had the Iimoriyama tour first.)

萱野権兵衛

MONUMENT TO KAYANO GONBEI This is a monument to Gonbei Kayano, one of the clan elders during the Boshin Civil War. He took responsibility for the Boshin Civil War by killing himself by ritual disembowelment. The citizens of Wakamatsu erected this monument to the memory of their Gonbei in 1934.

本丸御殿跡

REMAINS OF THE OLD BUILDINGS
Honmaru contains about 29000 square metres (8840 tsubo in old Japanese measurements). There used to be many buildings in this space. There were two chambers called DAISHOIN and SHOUSHOIN (they included 86 and 48 tatami respectively). In the exact centre of Honmaru, there was a GOZASHO, room where the feudal lord could conduct political business or study. On the left hand side, behind the tonosama gozasho, there were two houses in a row. A courtesan (TSUBONE) lived in one of these houses, called NAGATSUBONE.

After the Boshin War, many of the ruined buildings were bought by local temples. Gosankai and one of the genkan (entrance halls) were bought and moved to Amidaji in Nanukamachi. Tonosama Gozanoma (the rooms for the local lord) were taken to Chomeiji in Nisshinmachi. Unfortunately, two to three years later both the temple and the repaired building were burnt to the ground. The Hashirinagaya was moved to a sake store called Tsurunoe in Nanukamachi. Some of the ruins of a building from Honmaru were used in building Koutokuji, which includes Ujisato Gamou’s gravesite, on Shinmeidori.

BONUS: Find a cross on this wall.

十字マーク

CROSSES
There are cross marks in about 10 different places at the castle. Most of them can be found on the outside walls of the ishigaki, but occasionally one can be found on the inside walls. They are almost impossible to see if you aren’t looking for them. There is no record or explanation of where these marks came from or why they are there. Some people suggest that they were left by Christians (Ujisato Gamou, the man who rebuilt the castle in 1384, was a Christian. His Christian name was Ujisato Leo). Others suggest that perhaps the men who built the walls were trying to leave their mark on them.

御三階

GOSANKAI
Gosankai means “three floors”. This building was used for secret conferences. From the outside, it looks like the building only has two floors. In fact, in between the first and second floor, there is another, small, secret floor. Once the last person enters the hidden room, the stairs can be taken away by the people inside the room. Spies could be detected easily because the corridor was built in a way that the floor boards creaked when someone walked on them. In 1874, this building was bought and moved to the temple grounds at Amidaji in Nanuka-machi, where it still stands today.

土止めの石

STEPS TO STOP SOIL FROM DRAINING
On the wall beside the moat, there are steps that were put there to stop the soil from draining away during heavy rain or from snow melting during the spring thaw.

QUESTION: Why did they take the roof off the bridge?

廊下橋

ROUKABASHI
Roukabashi (meaning corridor bridge) is the red bridge leading to the castle from Ninomaru (where the tennis courts are now). The bridge used to have a roof, but it was removed because the soldiers couldn’t see the enemy well enough. The bridge was built so that not very many people could get across the moat at once. Legend has it that pulling a certain board out of the bridge made the whole thing collapse, if necessary.

QUESTION: What kind of castle is Tsurugajou?

山城・平山城・平城

THREE TYPES OF JAPANESE CASTLE GROUNDS
The three types of Japanese castle grounds are YAMAJIRO (castle built on a mountain), HIRAYAMAJIRO (castle built on grounds with mountains and plains), and HIRAJIRO (castle built on a plain). Tsurugajou is considered to be a hirayamajiro because it was built on sloping grounds. This can be proven by the fact that the water level of the moat is different on opposite sides of the castle.

QUESTION: What do you think the biggest problem would be about being at the castle during a war?

戊辰戦争

CONDITIONS DURING THE BOSHIN CIVIL WAR
During the Boshin Civil War, around 5000 people were trapped in the castle for about one month. There were about 600 to 700 women included in those numbers. Imagine that you are stuck in a place with 5000 other people, especially when that place was only built to hold a few hundred people. What do you think the biggest problem would be? Toilets! Kikuko Mizushima, a member of the women’s fighting force, wrote about her experiences during that time.

QUESTION: How would you solve the problem of water supply?

水戸(水門)違い

MITO CHIGAI
Anyone of the people trapped inside was willing to give his or her life to protect the castle. Nevertheless, there were three problems with being confined to the castle grounds. The first was how to dispose of human waste, the second was how to get clean water, and the third was living with lice. The living conditions were disgusting. They came up with a clever way to solve the problem of getting rid of waste and getting clean water. The water was pumped in through an earthen pipe. If you go to the castle and look at the water on either side of Roukabashi (the red bridge), you will see that the water level is different on either side. This difference in water level is called “mito chigai”. It may seem like there is just one moat, but that is not the case. The moats are actually separated and the water in one moat does not touch the water in another. This mito chigai design was originally made so that boats could not sail all the way around the castle and cause a blockade. However, this design turned out to have secondary benefits in that waste could be dumped into one side and water drawn from the other.

QUESTION: Why would they call it ninja otoshi?

忍者落し・忍者返し

NINJA OTOSHI or NINJA KAESHI
This ishigaki is 20 metres high making it the tallest in eastern Japan. Because of the great size of the wall, the original builders realized that it would be difficult to repair should it be damaged. In order to make the wall less likely to crumble, two strategies were used. First of all, if the ishigaki was built perfectly straight, it would probably collapse under its own weight, so it was built with a bit of a curvature in the middle. This also protects the wall from damage from earthquakes. Secondly, the rocks in the wall were put together in a style called “GOBOUZUMI”. (Gobou are long rectangular vegetables.) Long, rectangular rocks were used with the smallest side facing outwards. This made the wall extremely stable. This wall is called ninja otoshi (falling ninja) or ninja kaeshi (tumbling ninja) because it is extremely hard to scale due to its size and anyone who tries to climb it can be shot down easily from the wall that juts out at a ninety degree angle from it (YOKOYA KAKARI).

QUESTION: Why would they build the wall this way?

横矢掛

YOKOYA KAKARI
The rock walls zigzag in three spots. These zigzags are called “yokoya kakari”. This pattern was useful for defending the castle grounds against invasion. If the enemy forces were trying to scale the bank, the defenders could stand on the top of the bank and fire arrows. The zigzag meant that the defenders had a wider range of view to work with (fewer blindspots).

BONUS: Find the seven sumiyagura on the inner walls. Extra points for naming them.

角櫓・物見櫓・塗籠櫓

SUMIYAGURA or MONOMIYAGURA or NURIKOMEYAGURA
There were eleven sumiyagura (literally corner towers) on the banks of Tsurugajou’s grounds. Now only the bases remain, but there used to be buildings on these corner turrets. Sumiyagura served three main purposes. First, they allowed the soldiers to defend the castle walls. Second, they allowed the soldiers to attack the enemy. Third, they were used for the storage of various goods. Each sumiyagura was given a name so that the soldiers could refer to them quickly. Sometimes the purpose of a particular sumiyagura can be guessed from its name, but many of them remain a mystery. Sumiyagura were also sometimes called MONOMIYAGURA or “observation turrets”. The names of the seven sumiyagura on the inner grounds are: Chatsuboyagura (tea holder tower), Tsukimiyagura (moon-viewing tower), Hoshiiyagura (dried rice tower), Seinansumiyagura (southwest corner tower), Yumiyagura (bow tower [as in bow and arrow]), Kitasumiyagura (north corner tower), Oyumiyagura (bow tower [again, bow and arrow]). Each tower had a structure on top that was made by covering pillars with two coats of black lacquer. The structure was so dark, it was difficult for the enemy to see, so they were referred to as NURIKOMEYAGURA, or lacquered container towers.

QUESTION: Why were the rocks cut like this?

茶壷櫓

CHATSUBOYAGURA
You can almost see Iimoriyama from here. The tea stores were held in the warehouse that used to be at this site. You can see the cut marks in the walls where a wooden or metal wall would have stood. This wall was built to protect the soldiers, but there were holes in the walls so they could shoot approaching enemy.

鉢巻石垣

HACHIMAKI ISHIGAKI
Ujisato Gamou built the rock walls on the inside of the moat on top of the natural embankments of the marsh. This kind of ishigaki is called “hachimaki ishigaki” or headband-like rock wall. This style of construction can only be found in Tohoku and Kantou (eastern Japan).

HINT: Use the name of this yagura to help people find the koujou no tsuki monument.

月見櫓

TSUKIMIYAGURA
Tsukimiyagura means moon-viewing tower. The south-east part of the castle is the best position for viewing the moon. It is also the best place for taking pictures because of the perfect frame of the castle building in the background. If you climb on top of tsukimi yagura, you can see a marsh called “ushinuma”.

荒城の月

KOUJOU NO TSUKI
There is a monument on which is written a famous poem called Koujou no Tsuki (Moon over the dilapidated castle).

土井晩翠

DOI BANSUI
Bansui Doi was a young man who visited the castle in Aizu Wakamatsu on a school trip. At that time, he was a high school student in Sendai. Later in his life, he was asked by the Ministry of Education to write poems for the country. He wrote a poem called Koujou no Tsuki, keeping in mind his memories of Tsurugajou and Aobajou in Sendai. He has given lectures about his thoughts while writing this poem (for example, he gave a speech at Aizu Girl’s High School in 1946).

BONUS: Big bonus points for finding the monument.

荒城の月の歌碑

MONUMENT TO THE POEM
The citizens of Aizu Wakamatsu donated their money to support the building of a monument to commemorate the poem, Koujou no Tsuki. There are four monuments of Doi’s poetry (in his writing) in Japan: one at Tsurugajou in Aizu Wakamatsu, one at Aobajou in Sendai (erected in 1950), one at the remains of Okajou in Takeda, Oita Prefecture, and one in Iwate Prefecture.

QUESTION: What is special about these square slots?

柱跡

DRAINAGE SYSTEM FOR POLES
There are square slots carved out of the rock walls. They are clearly made to support wooden posts, but they have an interesting extra feature. If you look into the square holes, you will see that there is an opening at the bottom of the hole. This ingenious system allows water to drain out so that the bases of the wooden posts do not rot.

建設中

CONSTRUCTION SITE
Two buildings are being reconstructed: the Hoshiiyagura and the southern hashirinagaya. The decision to rebuild these structures coincided with the 100th anniversary of the founding of Aizu Wakamatsu City. They are scheduled to be finished in March 2001.

QUESTION: What do you think happened when Sen Rikkyu refused to let the shogun marry his daughter?

茶室麟閣

RINKAKU
Sen Rikkyu was a master of tea ceremony and flower arrangement who lived in Osaka. He was the tea ceremony advisor to Hideyoshi Toyotomi (1536-1598), the shogun of Japan. The detailed rules of tea ceremony that he created were so refined that they became accepted as the standard method and continue to be used today. Sen Rikyu had a daughter who was exceptionally beautiful. The shogun, Toyotomi, asked for her hand in marriage, but was continually refused by Sen Rikyu. Sen Rikyu was eventually accused of bribery and made to kill himself by ritual disembowelment. Ujisato Gamo was the leader in Aizu at this time. He was a great fan of culture and knew about Sen Rikyu and his incredibly elegant form of tea ceremony. Gamo also knew that Rikyu’s family was also in danger of being killed (or being asked to kill themselves) and that, should it happen, would mean the end of Rikyu’s style of tea ceremony. Gamo invited one of Rikyu’s sons Sen Shoan to Aizu in order to protect him. Sen Shoan built Rinkaku, the tea room on the castle grounds, and taught and practised tea ceremony for the two years that he was being protected. Ieyasu Tokugawa (a future shogun) and Gamo eventually asked the shogun, Hideyoshi Toyotomi, to pardon Rikyu’s relatives so that Shoan could return to his home. Hideyoshi agreed and Shoan returned to Kyoto to revive his father’s techniques. The three most famous styles of tea ceremony practiced today, Omote Sen, Ura Sen, and Musha Kouji Sen, were created by Shoan’s grandchildren (Sousa, Soushitsu, and Soushu, respectively). All of this happened thanks to a forward-thinking feudal lord in Aizu, Ujisato Gamo. The tearoom remained on the grounds of the castle until after the Boshin War. When Aizu was defeated, the remains of the buildings on the castle grounds went up for sale. A local tea ceremony expert, Zenbei Morikawa, bought the tea room and moved it to his garden. In 1990, it was returned to its rightful place, perfectly preserved thanks to the Morikawa family. Originally, the tea room would not have been surrounded by walls. (The walls were placed there because entrance to the tea room costs extra.)

馬洗石

UMA ARAI ISHI
Uma means horse, arai means wash, and ishi means stone. This is a kind of stone tub that was used to wash the horses. Water was taken from a well.

馬場

BABA
Baba means “horse place” and this is where the local lord (tonosama) would keep his horses and run them. The same kind of place for horses belonging to the warriors was called Sakura-no-baba (near the current Tsurugajou Kaikan).

QUESTION: Do you think this castle was used as a residence?

天守閣の目的

PURPOSE OF THE CASTLE BUILDING
The purpose of the castle is threefold. First it is a symbol of the Aizu area. Second, it is useful as an observatory. Finally, it served as a control tower in times of battle. It is an easy mistake to think that it might have been a residence, but the fact that there were no windows is proof that it was never meant to be a comfortable palace like some of the castles in Europe.

天守閣

TENSHUKAKU
Tenshukaku refers to the castle building. The walls at the bottom of the castle are built in the nozurazumi style. These walls are the oldest part of the castle grounds. They were built when Ujisato Gamou restructured the castle and the grounds in 1592-93. The rocks were brought by professionals from Anou in Shiga Prefecture. The walls may look like they were built on top of the earth, but in fact they go four metres into the ground. Because they were built in the NOZURAZUMI style, they are not susceptible to water damage because the water can run through the rocks easily without collecting in certain spots and weakening the wall. The corners are also strong. The strength and good design of the walls was proven in 1611 when a large earthquake occurred in Aizu Wakamatsu. Many rock walls were toppled, but the ones supporting the castle remained standing. The original castle was made of wood, but the current castle is made of concrete.

QUESTION: How much do you think it cost to rebuild the castle building?

QUESTION: Why was salt a precious commodity in Aizu?

QUESTION: How many storeys tall do you think the castle is?

再建天守閣

THE CURRENT CASTLE BUILDING
Unfortunately, Aizu was on the losing side of the Boshin Civil War. As a result, the castle was demolished in 1874 (five years after the war ended) by the Meiji government. It was destroyed because it was in a state of disrepair, but also because it symbolized the power of the Aizu clan. It was reconstructed in 1965 with the support of the local citizens. The cost of restoring the castle was 150,000,000 yen (around $1,500,000 US). The rock walls (ishigaki) at the base of the castle are 11 metres tall, and they are from the original castle. The original walls were not built to support the weight of a concrete building, so before the current castle was built, four thick metal poles were put into the ancient walls to support the new structure. The walls of the original building were flush with the wall, but the present castle’s walls are somewhat smaller than the rock walls. Because the walls are the oldest part of the castle, every effort was made to preserve them while construction of the new building took place. Salt was stored in the cellar below the castle because the rock walls could keep it cool and dry. Salt was a precious commodity in the mountainous Aizu region. The 5-storey building above the salt cellars is 25 metres tall. Because of the height of the wall, the total height of the castle would equal the height of an 11-storey building.

天守閣内

DISPLAYS INSIDE THE CASTLE
Displays inside the castle change regularly. These items may not be on display right now.
1st floor – tomb-period excavations (4th to 7th centuries) and Buddhist materials
2nd floor – antique lacquerware and pottery
3rd & 4th floors – Boshin War items, Byakkotai displays
5th floor – observatory
Southern wing – folk materials

鎧冑

YOROI KABUTO
This suit of armor was made of iron, covered with lacquer. At the front of the helmets, they have the symbol of their groups.

TSUKA
The castle has a collection of various “tsuka” or “sword guards”. They served both a practical purpose (to protect the sword) and an asthetic purpose (to decorate the handle). Craftsmen were very proud of their ability to carve detailed patterns on the tsuka.

SHACHIHOKO
Shachihoko is the name of the mythical fish that decorate the top of the castle. They have the face of a tiger and the body of a fish. There is one female and one male. They are said to protect the castle from fires. The shachihoko do not appear in the famous picture of the castle just after the Boshin Civil War. However, they do appear in the original plans for the building constructed by Akinari Kato in 1639. It is possible that the shachihoko were destroyed in the war and therefore do not appear in the picture.

赤い欄干

AKAI RANKAN
A red gate around the top of the castle was a feature of the original 7-storey castle built by GAMO UJISATO in the 1590s. When Akinari Katou restructured the castle into a 5-storey building during the Edo period (1639), he decided to keep the original red gate or “akai kouran”. A red gate is the sign of an old castle – most castles that were built during the Edo period do not have a red gate.

走り長屋

HASHIRI NAGAYA
The long structure on the left side of the castle was used as a secondary headquarters when the obikuruwa was invaded. There are no windows on one side. It was also used to store weapons. In the case of the Aizu clan, the soldiers stored their personal weapons here (the structure used to run all around Honmaru). If the castle was suddenly in danger, the soldiers would run here (often in their regular clothes rather than their armor) and take up arms. As a part of the Aizu Wakamatsu 100th Anniversary celebrations, the minami (south) hashiri nagaya will be reconstructed. Since the castle was constructed in the Edo period, an essentially peaceful time, the weapons that were originally stored in the hashiri nagaya were quite dated by the time of the Boshin Civil war (two hundred years later). These old weapons (spears, swords, etc) had become treasures. Unfortunately, after the castle was defeated in 1868, the enemy forces made off with the valuable weapons and they were never to be seen in Aizu again. Unfortunately, the weapons didn’t generally end up in museums, but were hoarded in private collections, so they may be lost to the Aizu family forever.

QUESTION: What kind of wall is kuroganemon built on?

鉄門

KUROGANEMON
Kuroganemon is a gate made from wood covered in iron. The rock walls beside the gate are made in the KIRIKOMIHAGI style of construction. This style is quite modern and involves cutting the rocks to fit into the walls.

金箔の瓦

KINPAKU NO KAWARA
Recently, there was a plan to build new public washrooms in different places on the castle grounds. However, a law in Japan states that no large-scale building can be done without first completing an archeological excavation. During the excavation process, the diggers found the remains of other ishigaki, traces of waterways, and ceramic roof tiles decorated with gold (kinpaku no kawara). The Agency of Culture has ordered the remains to be preserved, so the plans for new washrooms have been put on hold. These kinpaku no kawara were quite common in the Kansai area (western Japan, Kyoto, Kobe area), but they are a rare find in the Kantou/Tohoku areas (eastern Japan, Tokyo and north). The only other example in this area is Numata Castle in Gunma Prefecture. There were records of the gold roof tiles in a book called “Ujisatoki”, but no one was able to prove that they had actually existed until they were unearthed in the late 1998.

武者溜

MUSHADAMARI
The mushadamari is a long thin place where the soldiers could live during battles. It would not have been used during the Edo period after Katou’s reforms to the castle, since by that time, soldiers did not live on the castle grounds.

QUESTION: When is the hanami season?

花見

HANAMI
There are approximately 900 sakura (cherry) trees on the castle grounds. These are the kind that do not bear fruit. Tourists flock to the castle during late April for cherry blossom viewing (hanami). Ostensibly, the purpose of gathering is to view the cherry blossoms, but it is really just a good excuse to relax and drink sake under the trees. There are two specific trees on the grounds that are used to gauge “blossoming” during the cherry blossom season. The cherry trees on the castle grounds were planted in 1908.

武者走り

MUSHABASHIRI – GANGIZAKA
The set of stairs near the bell tower (kanetsukidou) were built in the gangizaka style. They are very steep and difficult to climb.

梅坂・契坂

UMEZAKA or CHIKIRIZAKA
Umezaka means plum slope. There are some plum trees around this slope.

西出丸

NISHIDEMARU
Nishidemaru is a parking lot now, but it used to contain many storehouses. There were places to store many of Aizu’s traditional crafts, such as candles and lacquerware, and the tools to make them.
QUESTION: Why would the bell tower be such a strong symbol of the Aizu clan’s power?
QUESTION: Why would the enemy hate the sound of the bell?

鐘撞堂

KANETSUKIDOU
Kanetsukidou is a bell tower. It was built in the 1700s. It used to toll every hour on the hour, but now it only rings at 12 noon. Noon was known as “kokonotsu”, which actually means “nine”. This comes from the fact that the bell would ring three times, then pause and ring nine times, so one could easily tell without listening to all of the rings that it was 12 noon and not eleven. During the Boshin Civil War, the bell tower became a symbol of Aizu’s power because the regular tolling of the bell signalled that the castle was still in the Aizu clan’s hands. The enemy forces, on the other hand, hated the sound of the bell, and thought it sounded like mockery. They often tried (and succeeded) to kill the bell-ringer by shooting at him from the opposite side of the moat, but they were eternally frustrated by the fact that some brave soul would then run out and ring the bell exactly on time anyway. The bell was moved to the castle walls that remain near the City Hall after the war, but it was returned to its rightful place in 1941. (Incidentally, the wall that remains near the City Hall also conforms to the “usetsusakou” form.)

弓櫓

YUMIYAGURA
Yumiyagura means “bow tower”, and it might have been used to store bows (and possibly arrows) or other weapons.

QUESTION: When is the Aizu Fall Festival?

会津秋祭

AIZU FALL FESTIVAL
This festival is held on the national holiday on September 23rd. It is also known as the “Samurai Festival”. Thousands of people dressed up in costumes from various periods of Aizu history parade through the streets on this day. The parade starts at the castle.