Kanazawa Castle

Kanazawa Castle (金沢城, Kanazawa-jō) is a large, partially restored Japanese castle in Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan. It is located adjacent to the celebrated Kenroku-en Garden, which once formed the castle's private outer garden. It was the headquarters of Kaga Domain, ruled by the Maeda clan for 14 generations from the Sengoku period until the coming of the Meiji Restoration in 1871.

During the late Muromachi period, the Ikkō-ikki, followers of the teachings of priest Rennyo, of the Jōdo Shinshū sect, displaced the official governors of Kaga Province, the Togashi clan, and established a kind of theocratic republic later known as "The Peasants' Kingdom". Their principal stronghold was the Kanazawa Gobō, a fortified temple complex on the tip of the Kodatsuno Ridge. Backed by high hills and flanked on two sides by rivers, it was a natural fortress, around which a castle town developed. This was the start of what would become the city of Kanazawa. In 1580, Oda Nobunaga sent his general Sakuma Morimasa to conquer Kaga Province.

He was subsequently awarded with the province as his fief and started work on the moats and the layout of the surrounding castle town; however, he sided with Shibata Katsuie after the assassination of Nobunaga and was defeated by the forces of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, led by Maeda Toshiie in the Battle of Shizugatake of 1583.

Maeda Toshiie made Kanazawa the base of his holdings, which expanded to cover all of Kaga Province, Noto Province and Etchū Province as Kaga Domain under the Tokugawa shogunate. He ordered the castle completely reconstructed in 1592 after lessons learned during Japanese invasions of Korea, and invited Takayama Ukon, the Kirishitan daimyō known for his expertise in castle design to assist with the construction.

The new castle originally had a six-story tenshu, which burned down in 1602 and was never rebuilt. Instead, the Inner bailey was used for the Hon-maru palace, or residence of the Maeda clan, with a three-story yagura turret.

The castle burned down in 1631, and was modified extensively at that time. The Ni-no-maru Second Bailey was expanded, the Tatsumi Canal was built through the castle grounds, and the residences of various senior retainers were removed to outside the castle moats. The castle burned down again in the Great Kanazawa Fire 1759.

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

Kanazawa Castle ranks #464 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #23 of the 297 mapped in Japan. Founded 1583, it is older than 35% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 718 atlas entries founded in the 16th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 12,495 times in the last 60 days, more than 94% of the atlas. 1 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how Japan compares in the castle statistics.

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