Shibushi Castle

Shibushi Castle (志布志城, Shibushi-jō) was a Muromachi to early Edo period hirajiro-style Japanese castle located in the city of Shibushi, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. Its ruins have been protected as a National Historic Site since 2005.

The origins of Shibushi Castle are uncertain. At the start of the Kamakura shogunate, Minamoto no Yoritomo assigned the provinces of Satsuma, Ōsumi and Hyūga Province to his retainer Shimazu Tadahisa, who established the vast Shimazu shōen landed estate. The bay at Shibushi was the main port of that domain and was assigned to the Niiro clan, who built fortifications on all of the hills surrounding the port settlement, which can collectively be called "Shibushi Castle". The Niiro clan continued to hold Shibushi until the beginning of 16th century, when they became involved in an internal conflict of the Shimazu clan between Shimazu Takahisa (1514-1571) and Shimazu Sanehisa (1512-1553) and were dispossessed in 1538.

The Shimazu ruled Shibushi directly for a short period, but in 1562, taking advantage of the weakened and disordered state of the Shimazu clan, the castle was seized by the neighboring Kimotsuki clan. The Shimazu recovered the castle in 1577. The castle continued to be used as a local stronghold until it was demolished due to the Tokugawa shogunate's "one country, one castle" rule in 1615. However, the Shimazu destroyed only the buildings, leaving much of the stone walls intact.

Shibushi Castle consist of four separated strongholds which surround the urban center and port of Shibushi. The main castle is called as "Uchijyo" and spreads over a rectangular-shaped hill 300 by 600 meters at an elevation of 50 meters on the mountain behind Shibushi Elementary School. Matsuo Castle on the mountain to the west of it, and the Taka Castle and Shin Castle are front of Shibushi Junior High School. The inner castle has four lines of enclosures separated by dry moats with two line of straight dry moat guarding both side of the hill. The main gate was at southwestern edge of the castle, and back gate was on its east side. While the castle appears to have a flat on ordered arrangement on a plan, each of the enclosures is on a different level, separated by sheer walls and steep slopes. Most of the castle ruins are undeveloped and difficult to enter.

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

Shibushi Castle ranks #4,899 of 8,134 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #239 of the 297 mapped in Japan. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,954 times in the last 60 days, more than 66% 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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