Hekirichi Bastion Fort (, as historic site name: Hekirichi Bastion Fort of Matsumae clan site (松前藩戸切地陣屋跡, Matsumae Han Hekirichi Jinya ato) was a fortified administrative center of the Matsumae clan during the late Edo period, located in present-day Nozaki, Hokuto City, Hokkaido.
It was the first in Japan to adopt a star-shaped bastion fort design based on European bastion-style fortification techniques and the army base selection and structure for artillery defense according to 19th-century European military theory. The name "Hekirichi" originates from the Ainu language "peker-pet" (meaning "beautiful-river" or "bright-river")Sugae Masumi (菅江真澄, a Japanese traveler, 1754–1829) wrote in Hiromekari (ひろめかり, 1789): "The Ainu call this place Bekere-betsu. Bekere means "clear water", and betsu means "river", so it is said to refer to a "clear river" in contrast to a "muddy river" (Kunne-pet, present-day called "Kunebetsu" in Hokuto City), and this must be how the place got its name." Ezo no Teburi in "えぞのてぶり" (1791) wrote that "Hekirechi is called Hekere-betsu, meaning "clear river" in the Ainu language." Additionally, Uehara Kumajirō (上原熊次郎, a Japanese Ainu language interpreter, died in 1827) wrote in Study of Ezo Place Names and Mileage Record (蝦夷地名考並里程記, Ezo Chimeiko Narabi ni Ritei-ki, 1824) regarding the origin of Hekirichi, "The Ainu word Bekeri-betsu means "clear river". In Oshima Nissi (渡島日誌, 1865), Matsuura Takeshirō (松浦武四郎, a Japanese traveler, 1818–1888) recorded from his visit to Ezo in 1856 that Hekirichi is translated as Hekere-betsu, meaning "transparent". It is named for the clear, cold water. and refers to the area surrounding the Hekirichi River, which flows west of the fort.
Background of construction and location The fort was constructed by the Matsumae clan in 1855, shortly after Japan's opening to the West, as a defensive outpost (戊営, boei, or guard post) in response to the Edo shogunate's direct control over Ezo (Hokkaido) for northern defense and the accompanying order to share responsibility for guarding the around Hakodate area (there were the Edo Shogunate's Ezo Governance Agency and one of the ports opened to foreign countries).
The designer was Fujiwara Jūta (藤原重太, died in 1868 later Fujiwara Shume, 藤原主馬), a Matsumae clansman who studied at Sakuma Shōzan's Western learning academy, Satsuki-juku (五月塾).『及門録 (kyu-mon-roku)』 The list of Shozan Sakuma's students, Kyoto university Libraly. The name "藤原重太 (Juta Fujiwara)" can be confirmed on the right page.Under Sakuma Shōzan, Fujiwara Shume had contemporaries and fellow students including Takeda Ayasaburō (武田斐三郎), Katsu Kaishū (勝海舟), Yoshida Shōin (吉田松陰), and Yamamoto Kakuma (山本覚馬), as listed in the roster of Shōzan's students, "Kyūmonroku (及門録)." The "Goryōkaku, (五稜郭)" a Bastion Fort designed by Takeda Ayasaburō, was completed in 1866, eleven years after the construction of the Hekirichi Bastion fort. It was the first fort in Japan to adopt a star-shaped bastion fort structure based on bastion-style fortification techniques.
It is built at the base of a tongue-shaped plateau commonly known as Nozaki Hill (野崎の丘, Nozaki-no-Oka) located approximately 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) northwest of present-day central Hokuto City. The main star-shaped bastion fort is situated on the highest flat surface of Nozaki Hill. It is protected by natural enclosure-like terrain, with the Cliff of Anatahira (アナタヒラの崖壁, Anatahira no Gaiheki) to the southwest as the natural castle wall, mountainous terrain extending toward the Matsumae Peninsula to the north, and a ravine to the northeast, limiting access routes to the main bastion to a gentle slope extending from the southeast. The main star-shaped bastion is a four-bastion structure composed of earthworks and moats, with six gun emplacements constructed on the eastern bastion.
Matsumae Hironaga (松前広長, 1738–1801), a mid-Edo period Matsumae clan elder and historian, highly praised the site's defensive and scenic advantages, particularly the southwest Cliff of Anatahira calling it an "unrivaled castle site in the region" (近国無双の城地, kingoku-musō-no-jōchi) and proposing it as a candidate for relocating the clan's headquarters in his work Matsumae-shi (松前志; prefaced in 1781). Additionally, explorer Kondō Juzō (近藤重蔵, 1771–1829), who inspected Ezo, recommended in a report submitted to the shogunate in 1807 that the administrative center of Ezo be moved from Matsumae to Nozaki, describing it as a strategically superior stronghold (要害之勝地, yōgai-no-shōchi). The site's evaluation as a castle location consistently remained high.
The schedule leading up to the construction of the fort was remarkably brisk. On May 8, 1855, the shogunate issued orders for the specific allocation of guard territories and the construction of guard posts following the earlier land requisition.『藤枝日記』(fujieda-nikki) In response, on June 8 of the same year, the Matsumae clan selected Nozaki Hill as the fort site and petitioned the Hakodate Magistrate (箱館奉行, Hakodate-bugyō)The shogunate's remote governance office in Hakodate. to build a main guard post for Hakodate's defense, which was approved on June 10.『北門史綱』巻之二(Hokumon-Shiko, Vol.2).General history book of the Matsumae clan. The following day, June 11, the site was inspected by the Hakodate Magistrate, and construction of Hekirichi Bastion Fort commenced without delay. Without waiting for the harsh winter, when frozen soil becomes a major obstacle to construction in the northern region,In the winter of 1868, Ōtori Keisuke, who traveled to Ezo due to the Hakodate War, undertook construction work with the engineer corps to reinforce the inadequate defenses of Goryōkaku. He described the difficulty, stating that "Due to the snow cover, the ground was frozen and as hard as iron" (積雪中にて土地凍冱堅きこと鉄の如く). (『南柯紀行』,nanka-kikou) the first Western-style fortress in Japan was completed on October 20 of the same year, with construction period of just five months.
The fortification techniques that Fujiwara Shume acquired from European military science encompassed foundational methods for constructing fortifications, later established and systematized as combat engineer discipline. These methods integrated analytical geometric structural calculations with efficient techniques for achieving the target structure, significantly contributing to the rapid and robust completion of the fortress. Notably, at the time, no one else within the Matsumae clan possessed such militarily derived knowledge from outside Japan. In recognition of Shume's contributions to the construction of the fort, the clan lord Matsumae Takahiro (松前崇広, 1829–1866) awarded him a permanent elevation in family status and the gift of two sets of seasonal clothing. This reward, personally bestowed by Takahiro,『北門史綱』巻之二 (Hokumon-Shiko vol.2)、『和田家諸用記録』(Wada-ke Shoyo-kiroku, Wada Family Miscellaneous Records) was an exceptional honor.
Historical significance
The plan of the main bastion has been lost. However, in 2023, archaeological shape analysis of the existing remains by Tokita Taichirō, curator of the Hokuto City Hometown Museum, revealed that the design was based on a square with sides of just 200 meters (656 feet),This refers to the distance between the tips of each bastion (termed front in the original textbook), which became the foundation for the plan design of bastion-style fortresses after the geometric design techniques, based on regular polygons, were formalized and generalized in the book Nouveau traité de géométrie et fortification (1691) by Cambray a disciple of Sébastien Le Prestre, Marquis of Vauban, who centered his theories on this approach.Notably, the front length of Heirichi bastion fort, despite changes over time, has been maintained with an error margin of approximately 1 meter. using its diagonals and bisectors as reference lines, and was executed using the metric system, which was not the standard surveying method in Japan at the time.The dimensions specified in the Savart textbook, which served as the design basis for the Hekirichi Bastion Fort, are based on the metric system, and as shown in the accompanying diagram, each part adheres to these measurements. The original French textbook uses meters as the unit of measurement, but the Dutch translation, reflecting the transitional period toward the metric system in the Netherlands at the time, replaces "meter" with the traditional Dutch unit "el" while maintaining equivalent values. This practice was also followed in Japan; for instance, in a 1852 letter by Sakuma Shōzan (佐久間象山), it is noted that el refers to three shaku and three sun (approximately 99.99 cm), and in 1855, Suzuki Shigemasa's (鈴木重正) Hojutsu Hitsuyo Ryouchi Sanpo (砲術必用 量地筭法) describes el as three shaku, two sun, nine bu, and two rin (approximately 99.90 cm). Furthermore, the geometric design method, as well as the dimensions and angles of each part, were found to match the specifications of the model structure detailed in the chapter "Des Forts à bastions" (Dutch: Gebastioneerde Forten, bastion-style fortresses) in Cours élémentaire de fortification (first edition 1812) by Nicolas Savart (1765–1825),The textbook was reprinted until the 1830s and used as a teaching manual at the Saint-Cyr Military Academy. Even after the original author, Savart, was succeeded by later writers, the title Cours élémentaire de fortification continued to be used for the academy's fortification textbooks. The confirmed editions of Savart's textbook include the first edition of 1812, significantly expanded editions in 1825, 1828, and 1830, as well as a Dutch translation based on the 1825 edition published in 1827 (titled Beginselen der versterkingskunst), Italian translations confirmed in 1830, 1835 and 1836 (titled Corso elementare di fortificazione). In Japanese, Egawa Hidetatsu (江川英龍)'s retainer, Yatabe Keiun (矢田部卿雲, 1819–1857), translated the Dutch edition in 1853 under the title Keibijutsu Gen (警備術原). used as a textbook for fortification studies at the French Saint-Cyr Military Academy, and its Dutch translation with additions by Frederik Petrus Gisius Nanning (1798–1832) Beginselen der versterkingskunst (1827) (hereinafter "Savart's textbook"). This Dutch translation was confirmed among the possessions of Sakuma Shōzan, Fujiwara Shume's mentor, and was also found in the library of Egawa Hidetatsu (江川英龍, 1801–1855), a pioneer of Western learning in the late Edo period under whom Shozan studied, as well as mentioned in correspondence by Date Munenari (伊達宗城, 1818–1892)河内八郎 (Kawachi Hachiro）『徳川斉昭・伊達宗城往復書翰集』(Tokigawa Nariaki Date Munenari Ouhuku shokan syu), 1993From the same book, letters dated September 1846, October 5, 1846, December 14, 1846, June 2, 1847, and July 2, 1847, indicate that it was lent or cited as an official document of the shogunate to daimyo families. Additionally, it is confirmed that the book was part of the collections of Takashima Shuhan(高橋秋帆）, Miyake Tomonobu (三宅友信, the old lord of Sugamo), and Mizuno Tadakuni（水野忠邦） . and listed in the architecture section of the Bansho Shirabesho Book Catalog Copy. This suggests that it served as an early text for Japan's Western-knowledge enthusiasts in the late Edo period to study European artillery defense.