Shiryōkaku

Shiryōkaku (四稜郭) (literally, "four-point fort") is a fort in the city of Hakodate in southern Hokkaidō, Japan. It was constructed in April 1869, during the Battle of Hakodate, three kilometres to the northeast of Goryōkaku by 200 soldiers of the former Tokugawa shogunate and 100 local villagers, likely under the direction of Ōtori Keisuke. Shiryōkaku has four bastions, and is sometimes known as the "butterfly fort" as opposed to the "star fort".

The designated historic site area is 21,500 m², while the fort itself covers approximately 2,300 m², stretching approximately a hundred metres east to west and seventy metres north to south; the earthworks rise to a height of 3 m with a width of 5.4 m; they are surrounded by a dry moat 0.9 m deep and 2.7 m wide; the entrance is to the southwest.

Shiryōkaku fell to government forces within a few hours on 11 May 1869.

In 1934 the area was designated a Historic Site. Repairs were carried out from 1970 to 1972, and again in 1990.

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

Shiryōkaku ranks #3,378 of 8,134 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #173 of the 297 mapped in Japan. Founded 1869, it is older than 6% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 607 atlas entries founded in the 19th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,981 times in the last 60 days, more than 67% of the atlas. 3 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how Japan compares in the castle statistics.

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