is a Japanese castle located in Chūō-ku, Fukuoka, Japan. It is also known as Maizuru Castle (舞鶴城 Maizuru-jō) or Seki Castle (石城 Seki-jō). Completed in the early Edo period for tozama daimyō Kuroda Nagamasa, it has been designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 1957.
The castle lies in the centre of Fukuoka, on top of Fukusaki hill. The , Naka-gawa in Japanese, acts as a natural moat on the eastern side of the castle, while the western side uses a mudflat as a natural moat. Hakata, a ward with a bustling port, is located on the opposite side of the Naka River to the east. The castle town was established on the northern side, facing the sea.
Much of the castle grounds has been converted to Maizuru Park, which houses several sports facilities, a courthouse, and an art museum. Heiwadai Baseball Stadium, the past home field of the Nishitetsu Lions and the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks, was also located on the castle grounds. Some of the castle's gates as well as its towers and turrets, known as yaguras, are preserved inside the park. The completed in 1854 is designated as an Important Cultural Property.
The remnants of a korokan (鴻臚館), an ancient guest house for foreign diplomats, were discovered under the castle grounds in 1987, showing that the castle was a vital geographical checkpoint even into the Heian period. This is the only korokan remnant found in all of Japan.
History In 1600, Kuroda Nagamasa received huge rewards in the form of fiefs in Chikuzen Province for his contributions during the Battle of Sekigahara and moved into Najima Castle (名島城 Najima-jō) to form Fukuoka Domain. Najima Castle had been created by Tachibana Akitoshi and was expanded by Kobayakawa Takakage, but was much too small to accommodate a large domain, leading to the selection of Fukusaki hill as a new castle site.
Construction began in 1601 (Keichō year 6). Yoshitaka, an expert at establishing fortifications, and Noguchi Kazunari, a stonemason who had worked on Edo Castle and Osaka Castle, directed the construction. Completed in 1607 after seven years of work, the castle is said to have contained an impressive 47 yagura, and covered an area of 47,000 square metres (making it the largest in the Kyūshū region). Katō Kiyomasa of the nearby Kumamoto Domain lauded the castle for its grandeur. The dry stone fortification designed by Noguchi was especially impressive, giving the castle the name "Seki-jō" (literally "Stone Castle").
The castle and castle town were renamed "Fukuoka" from "Fukusaki", after Fukuoka of Bizen Province (current Setouchi, Okayama), where the Kuroda family had originated.
Several minor repairs were made during the Edo period, and full-scale renovation was conducted during the Bakumatsu period.
In 1871, (Meiji year 4) the abolition of the han system forced the abandonment of the castle. Many of the buildings inside the castle grounds were taken down or moved to other locations.
In 1920, (Taishō year 9) the Kinen Yagura was relocated to Taishō temple in Yahata Higashi-ku, Kitakyushu. The building was moved back to its original location in 1983.
On August 29, 1957, the castle was decreed a historic site by the Japanese government. Additional gates and yagura were also decreed historical artifacts by the prefectural government in 1952, 1961, 1971 and 1957.
Part of the second main gate was set on fire by a vandal in 2000, and was later reconstructed.
Selection of locale After his overwhelming victory in the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, Kuroda Nagamasa was installed as the ruler of Chikuzen Province which he received in exchange for his six counties in Buzen Province. He established his quarters at Najima Castle together with his father, Josui.
Najima Castle was located on a peninsula projecting into Hakata Bay on the north of the estuary of the Tatara River. The castle fundamentally consisted of the hon-maru, the ni-no-maru, and the san-no-maru, respectively ranging from west to east, and extending for over (maru is here a term referring to a space within a castle's grounds). Built by Kobayakawa Takakage, an illustrious Japanese general, it was an impregnable castle. However, when the aspects of politics and economics were considered, it turned out to be undesirable as the administrative centre of the province, for it seemed impossible to construct an extensive castle town because of the river on the south, the sea on the north and the west, and the foothills on the east. On top of that, the castle was located far from Hakata, a large business centre.
Accordingly, Nagamasa and Josui made a survey of four sites: Sumiyoshi, Hakozaki, Aratsu-yama hill (present-day Nishi-kōen Park), and Fukuzaki. After careful consideration, Fukuzaki was chosen as the castle site. Fukuzaki, in the proximity of Hakata, was a place where a castle town could easily be constructed, and it was valuable as a naval port; furthermore, it had geostrategic advantages; it was surrounded by a cove, rivers, and hills. Thus Josui chose Fukuzaki, which is present-day Fukuoka, now one of the largest cities in Japan.
Castle components
The construction of Fukuoka Castle began in 1601 and was completed in 1607. The plan is considered to have been directed by Kuroda Nagamasa. An old document suggests that Kuroda Nagamasa planned a gate and its surrounding area after many consultations with his distinguished commanding officers.
The process of construction is fairly well known, based on archaeological and geological research and old documents, which provided the details for developing an understanding of the process of castle construction.
Because there had been a range of hills from the Akasaka-yama hill (present-day Sakurazaka 2 chome), which is about above sea level, to the hill which was to become the site of the hon-maru, an area to the south of the castle was excavated to form a moat. The hills to the south of the moat were also excavated and altered to become gently sloping hills. The top section of a hillock to the northwest of the inner castle was also truncated because it was higher than the hon-maru. The hillock was then used as the site for a retirement residence for Kuroda Yoshitaka.
A cove or an inlet on the west of the inner castle, in which Ōhori Park and Arato are now situated, was utilized for the Ohori Moat (Big Moat) in the cove's southern half and for a town in its northern half by a reclaiming and dredging process. At the same time the Hii (Tajima) River, which was flowing into the cove, was diverted from its course to the west.
On the west of the inner castle, two linear moats were excavated from the inner castle to the confluence of the Shiju River (the present-day Yakuin-shin River) and the Naka River.
This large scale construction required a great number of stones. An analysis of their composition reveals that they came from the islands of Noko-no-shima, Itoshima, Sawara and Kashii, and the region from Noma to Teratsuka. According to old books, the stones and buildings of the dismantled Najima Castle were shipped to Fukuoka and the stones which had been used for the Genko Borui walls (walls built to thwart the Mongolian invaders) and the ancient burial mounds in and around Hirao village and the Hirao-yama hills were also reused for Fukuoka Castle. From these facts it can be inferred that the constructors of the castle had a difficult time collecting the stones. The important walls were constructed under the direction of Noguchi Sasuke Kazushige, who was renowned for his skills in construction stone walls, and who in later years participated in the construction of Edo Castle and Osaka Castle.
For the castle construction, wealthy merchants, Kamiya Sotan and Shimai Soshitsu, provided greatly appreciated financial help. After completing the project, Yoshitaka and Nagamasa named the castle, "Fukuoka", in commemoration of the land of his forefathers, which is present-day Fukuoka, Setouchi-shi, Okayama Prefecture.
Hon-maru A hon-maru is a kuruwa located in the heart of a Japanese castle, which is a complex of kuruwa enclosures. Fukuoka Castle was built in the style of Teikaku-shiki or Hashigokaku-shiki (a plan in which the hon-maru, ni-no-maru, and san-no-maru share common defensive lines on one side, because the topography and the castle plan gives a particular advantage to that side) and its hon-maru is situated in the south of the inner castle. The hon-maru measures from east to west, and from north to south.
The hon-maru is shaped like an abbreviated form of a cross because of the complicated exterior lines of stone walls. The de-sumis (salient corners) on the north side of the hon-maru are rectangular flanking projections which increase the castle's defensibility; the iri-sumis (receded corners) on the south side of the hon-maru also increase the castle's defensibility because they permit cross fire at the enemy at the southern corners of the hon-maru. The top of the foundation of the dai-tenshu (large donjon) is above sea level, and at the centre of the hon-maru, above sea level. The hon-maru of Fukuoka Castle was divided into a northern part and a southern part by the stone foundations for the sho-tenshu (small donjon), the chū-tenshu (medium donjon), the dai-tenshu (large donjon), and the kanritsu-shiki tenshu-kuruwa (a kuruwa formed of rectangular buildings as the final strategic position in time of siege). The southern part is apparently the tenshu-kuruwa (a kuruwa especially designed for the defence of the tenshu), playing the role of the tsume-no-maru (a kuruwa for the final fighting of a siege), and it is the most fortified place in the castle. On the northwest corner of the foundation of the tenshu, the tenshu kuruwa has in addition the kanritsu-shiki tenshu-kuruwa. This particular feature indicates that the castle's purpose was defensive.
The foundation for the dai-tenshu (large donjon) measures about from east to west, and from north to south, and covers an area the size of the first floor of the tenshu of Himeji Castle, which has an area of 550.025 square metres. It has long been believed that there had not been a tenshu on the foundation; however, indirect descriptions of a tenshu are seen in a few old documents and the existence of an annex for the tenshu is indicated on some old maps. The problem is now being studied by various researchers. (Kuroda Nagamasa tried to destroy all the documents which were related to Christianity. Since "tenshu" also means "(Christian) God", it is possible that he destroyed almost all the documents which contained the word "tenshu".)
The hon-maru residence, which was located to the north of the foundation of the dai-tenshu (large donjon), served as a domicile for lords until the second lord, Kuroda Tadayuki, built a new residence in the san-no-maru. In the hon-maru residence, there was a 56 tatami-mat (109 sq.m. in Chikuzen) audience chamber and the Shaka-no-ma (Buddha Room) where Iken-kai (regular meetings in which principal retainers were permitted to freely speak their opinions whether they agreed with the lord's position or opinion or not) were held.
In the hon-maru, there were some Shinto shrines, as in the case of many other castles in Japan. On the west of the foundation of the dai-tenshu (large donjon), there was a Niyakuichioji Shrine. This shrine was a branch of the Kego Shrine, which was dedicated to three gods of war. In Meiwa 5 (1768), the Seisho-Gongen Shrine was built to the east of the foundation of the dai-tenshu to deify Kuroda Nagamasa, and in An'ei 2 (1773) the Suikyo-Gongen Shrine was raised to honor Kuroda Yoshitaka in the same building. Both shrines are still in existence in their new location in Nishi-koen Park (on Arato-yama hill) as one shrine, today called the "Terumo Shrine."
Ni-no-maru