Kagoshima Castle

Kagoshima Castle (鹿児島城, Kagoshima-jō) was an Edo period flatland-style Japanese castle located in the city of Kagoshima, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. Its ruins have been protected as a National Historic Site since 2023. Kagoshima Castle was listed as one of Japan's Top 100 Castles by the Japan Castle Foundation in 2006.). It is more popular known in Kagoshima as Tsurumaru Castle (鶴丸城)

Kagoshima Castle was built by Shimazu Tadatsune following the defeat of the Shimazu clan along with the Western Army at the 1600 Battle of Sekigahara. His father Shimazu Yoshihiro had famously led a fighting retreat off of the battlefield and escaped with the bulk of his army intact back to Kyushu. The victorious Tokugawa forces landed in Kyushu to subdue the remnants of the forces loyal to Ishida Mitsunari and Toyotomi Hideyori, but reached a peace agreement with the Shimazu, who agreed to reduce their territory to the provinces of Satsuma and Ōsumi. The previous center of Satsuma and the main stronghold of the Shimazu clan had been in the area of present-day Satsumasendai and Izumi, which were nearer to provincial border with Higo Province.

Shimazu Tadatsune therefore decided to relocate his stronghold further south, which was further away from potential invasion by the Tokugawa shogunate and protected by mountainous terrain. The actual site was selected by geomancy and was protected by the Hegigawa River to the east, Satsuma Kaidō to the west, the Kinko Bay to the south, and Mount Shiroyama to the north. He constructed a "yakata-zukuri" style castle, which was more of a large fortified residence than a Japanese castle. It consisted of a main citadel in the north and a secondary citadel to the south, protected by a moats and low walls, and did not have a tenshu or high stone walls.

Mount Shiroyama to the rear of the castle was regarded as the redoubt which could be used in case of siege; however, after Tadatsune's death, the mountain was regarded as a sacred area and was placed off-limits. Tadatsune's father, Shimazu Yoshihiro, was adamantly against the construction of Kagoshima Castle due to its indefensible design and its proximity to the coast; however, politically the military weakness of the castle was intended as a political statement verifying the Shimazu clan's submission to the Tokugawa shogunate. The castle was completed in 1604.

Text adapted from “Kagoshima Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Kagoshima Castle ranks #1,211 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #57 of the 297 mapped in Japan. Founded 1601, it is older than 32% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 580 atlas entries founded in the 17th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 5,444 times in the last 60 days, more than 86% of the atlas. It is one of the 37 landmarks on the atlas's regional map of Kyushu. See how Japan compares in the castle statistics.

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