Shimabara Castle

Shimabara Castle (島原城, Shimabara-jō), also known as Moritake Castle (森岳城, Moritake-jō) and Takaki Castle (高来城, Takaki-jō), is a Japanese castle located in Shimabara, Hizen Province (present day Nagasaki prefecture). This five-story white building stands in stark contrast to the black Kumamoto Castle in neighboring Kumamoto Prefecture.

Shimabara Castle faces Ariake Bay and is located at the foot of Mount Unzen. The castle is a rectangular linked-wall flatland-style (flatland castle (平城, Hirajiro)) castle, characterized by high stone walls. The outer moats, some 15 meters deep and between 30–50 meters wide, extended 360 meters east-west and 1260 meters north-south, with the enclosed area divided into three baileys. The walls extended for 3900 meters and had 16 yagura of various sizes at key points. The main enclosure is also surrounded by a moat and is connected to the second enclosure by a single wooden corridor bridge. Destroying the bridge would allow the main enclosure to be isolated, but on the other hand it would be trapped, and the corridor bridge would make it difficult for arrows to hit enemies on the bridge so this was a flaw in the layout.

The main tenshu had five stories, and a height of 33 meters, and was connected to two secondary tenshu. In terms of scale, it was far larger than normal for a daimyō with revenues of only 40,000 koku.

The Kirishitan Arima clan, who ruled over the Shimabara peninsula from the late Muromachi period from Hinoe Castle and Hara Castle were transferred to Nobeoka Domain in 1616 by the Tokugawa shogunate. The Arima were replaced as daimyō of Shimabara Domain by Matsukura Shigemasa as a reward for his services in the Siege of Osaka. This was soon after the shogunate banned Christianity from 1614 and Matsukura strictly enforced the prohibition against Christianity with mass executions. In 1618, he began the construction of Shimabara Castle using forced labor. Construction was plagued with difficulties due to the loose lava soil of the site, which created problems for supporting the weight of the stone walls, and construction took seven years and the castle was not completed until 1624.

During this period, Matsukura raised taxes severely, partly to pay for the construction costs of the castle. This oppression of the peasants was a major factor leading to the Shimabara Rebellion of 1637 to 1638.

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

Shimabara Castle ranks #975 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #48 of the 297 mapped in Japan. Founded 1618, it is older than 31% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 580 atlas entries founded in the 17th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 5,088 times in the last 60 days, more than 85% of the atlas. 2 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Kumamoto, 32 km away. 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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