Ne Castle

Ne Castle (根城, Ne jō) is a Muromachi period Motte-and-bailey-style Japanese castle located in what is now the city of Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, in the Tōhoku region of far northern Japan. It has been protected by the central government as a National Historic Site since 1941. It was extensively reconstructed in 1994.

Ne Castle consists of five motte-and-bailey enclosures on a roughly L-shaped river terrace on the south bank of the Mabechi River, approximately 500 meters long by 300 meters wide. As was typical for the time, the fortifications consisted primarily of wooden palisades and earthen ramparts, guarded by 20-meter wide dry moats. The area was divided into several enclosures, or baileys, with varying elevations. There was no donjon in the central bailey, which was occupied by a large building, possibly in the Shōin style, based on evidence of foundation posts, as the residence of the ruling Nanbu clan. Other enclosures held the residences of important retainers, along with barracks, workshops and storerooms.

Some of the buildings were constructed as pit dwellings indicating the survival of this ancient building style into the Muromachi period. One of the enclosures contained a Buddhist temple, Tōzen-ji, which served as the Nanbu clan temple.

Ne Castle was constructed in 1334, during the early Nanboku-chō period, by Nanbu Moroyuki, a retainer of Kitabatake Akiie, the kokushi of Mutsu Province and was intended to be a center for the imperial government administration in the area. Nanbu Motoyuki was under allegiance to the Southern Court; however, at the same time, another branch of the same Nanbu family ruled the nearby Sannohe and Morioka areas under allegiance to the rival Northern Court. The two branches of the clan made peace with each other in 1393.

In 1590, at the end of the Sengoku period, Nanbu Nobunao of the Sannohe-Nanbu supported Toyotomi Hideyoshi at the Siege of Odawara and was awarded formal rule of all seven districts of northern Mutsu Province, which were already under the control of the Nanbu clan. The 18th generation castellan of Ne Castle, Nanbu (Hachinohe) Masayuki, became his retainer. The fortifications at Ne Castle were destroyed in 1592 by order of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and the clan headquarters was relocated to Sannohe Castle, although some local administrative functions remained at the site.

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

Ne Castle ranks #1,865 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #116 of the 297 mapped in Japan. Founded 1334, it is older than 60% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 582 atlas entries founded in the 14th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 2,382 times in the last 60 days, more than 70% of the atlas. 1 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how Japan compares in the castle statistics.

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