Castles in Kyushu

• Hirado Castle
• Karatsu Castle
• Kitsuki Castle
• Kokura Castle
• Kumamoto Castle
• Shimabara Castle
• Usuki Castle
• Shikoku Castles
• Original Japanese Castles

Kyushu Castles 九州の城

Kyushu is home to a good number of Japanese castles that can easily be visited on any trip to Japan's southern island by public transport or hire car.

Hirado Castle 平戸城

Hirado Castle, situated on a rounded hill, overlooks the beautiful and historic harbor town of Hirado on Hirado Island, off the north west coast of Kyushu, south of Fukuoka.

Hirado Castle, known as Hinotake Castle, was first built in 1599 by Matsuura Shigenobu, a retainer of Hideyoshi Toyotomi, who had fought in Korea with Hideyoshi's armies.

Hirado Castle burnt down in 1613 and was rebuilt between 1704 and 1718 and was now known as Kameoka Castle.

The original Hirado Castle was first constructed in 1599 by Matsuura Shigenobu

Karatsu Castle 唐津城

Karatsu Castle,
situated on a small hill above Karatsu Bay in Saga Prefecture in Kyushu seems to rise out of the sea.

Karatsu Castle's construction began in 1602 using materials from nearby Nagoya Castle (not to be confused with Nagoya Castle in Aichi Prefecture on Honshu), which was a base for Toyotomi Hideyoshi's invasions of Korea and was dismantled with the onset of the Tokugawa regime.

Winged by curving stretches of beach, Karatsu Castle was popularly known as Maizuru-jo ("Dancing Crane Castle").

The building of Karatsu Castle was first undertaken by Terasawa Hirotaka, a former vassal of Hideyoshi's who sided with Tokugawa Ieyasu at the decisive Battle of Sekigahara. However in 1637, in part due to his failure to crush the Shimabara Rebellion (1637-38), the castle passed to the Okubo clan.

The present Karatsu Castle dates from 1966 and was constructed in the style of the original Edo Period castle

Kitsuki Castle 杵築城

Kitsuki Castle in Kitsuki, Kunisaki, Oita Prefecture, was first built in 1394 by the fourth daimyo Kizuki Yorinao and is claimed to be the smallest castle in Japan. One of its nicknames is "prostrating cow" castle because the surrounding land appears to be a cow prostrating on the ground.

Kitsuki Castle is also known as Katsuyamajo, "castle of victory" following an unsuccessful siege of the castle by the Shimizu clan.The Kitsuki Clan ruled from here on the hilltop for 14 generations until the end of the 16th century. Then Kitsuki Castle changed hands three times before the Hosokawa family took over for a short period until the Ogasawara held it until the Matsudaira were finally put in charge until the Meiji period beginning in the late 1860's.

In 1596 and 1597 Kitsuki Castle suffered damage by an earthquake and then a severe storm. Administration of the domain was moved to buildings below the castle. In 1608 the keep was hit by lightning and burned down. It was not rebuilt until the current concrete version in 1970.

The reconstructed keep of Kitsuki Castle in Oita Prefecture
Kokura Castle, Kokura, Kyushu

Kokura Castle 小倉城

Kokura Castle, the only castle left standing in Fukuoka Prefecture, was first built in 1602 by Hosokawa Tadaoki and completed six years later. The castle was destroyed by fire in 1837, with parts of it rebuilt by 1839.

Kokura Castle, now located in Kokura city in Kitakyushu, was damaged again in the violent times leading up to the Meiji Restoration in 1868, this time in fighting between the pro-imperial forces of the Choshu clan and the Tokugawa-allied Kokura clan in 1865.

Kokura Castle's donjon (keep) was rebuilt in 1959 and the castle buildings completely restored in 1991. The original castle looked quite different to its modern reconstruction, with the design and details of the main keep being originally of a much simpler style. The design was changed to make the reconstruction more visually appealing.

Diorama, Kokura Castle, Kokura, Kyushu

Kumamoto Castle, 熊本城

Kumamoto Castle in Kumamoto underwent major restoration in time for its 400th anniversary in 2007. Kumamoto Castle was constructed by Kato Kiyomasa between 1601-1607 and is Japan's third largest castle after Osaka Castle and Nagoya Castle.

Kato was an ally of Tokugawa Ieyasu and fought at the decisive Battle of Sekigahara in 1600. His reward was the fief around Kumamoto, however the Kato clan fell out of favor with the Tokugawa regime and were replaced with the Hosokawa clan in the 1630's.

Kumamoto Castle is a tour-de-force of defensive architecture by master tactician Kato Kiyomasa and has never been successfully attacked. At its peak Kumamoto Castle had 49 turrets and 29 gates and a vast array of defensive measures including portholes (ishi-otoshi-mado) for dropping stones, boiling water and even excrement and other missiles onto any aggressors below.

Kumamoto Castle at sunset

Shimabara Castle 島原城

Shimabara Castle was under construction from 1618 until completed seven years later in 1625.

Matsukura Shigemasa, who had replaced the Christian daimyo Arima Naozumi, raised taxes to pay for the building of his new fortress and this financial burden added to his ruthless suppression of his Christian subjects was a major factor behind the Shimabara Rebellion of 1637-38.

Shimabara Castle was besieged during the rebellion but not significantly damaged. Shimabara castle was later to be under the control of the Koriki, Matsudaira and Toda clans throughout the Edo Period (1600-1868).

After the Meiji Restoration of 1868 the castle keep was pulled down leaving only the impressive stone walls and moats intact.

The present Shimabara Castle is a 33m-tall, five storey, ferro-concrete structure re-built in the style of the original 17th century castle in 1964. Various yagura (towers) were restored at various times in the 1960s and 70s.

The castle has an excellent museum inside detailing the Shimabara Rebellion and exhibits from the areas's Kakure Kirishitan ("Hidden Christians") culture.

Shimabara Castle is a replica of the original Edo era fortress built in the 1960s

Usuki Castle 臼杵城

Usuki Castle in Usuki on the coast of Oita, Kyushu, was constructed atop a small island, Niyuujima, that connected to the mainland by a sandbar at low tide.

Due to the silting up of the river mouth, and a lot of land reclamation, the island is now a small plateau in the middle of the town.

With vertical cliffs the island had great potential for defense, so it was chosen to be the headquarters by Otomo Sorin who moved here after the castle was completed in 1562 after first leaving his son in charge of Funai Castle, a little to the north.

Over the preceding century the Otomo had risen in power and controlled a large part of Kyushu, however, the Shimazu, who controlled all of southern Kyushu from their base in Kagoshima, also chose to expand their territory and in 1586 attacked the Otomo who were forced to retreat to Usuki.

The Shimazu sacked the town but Otomo holed up in his island fortress. Otomo Sorin had become a Christian in 1578, taking the name Francisco, and within the castle were many Portuguese and Japanese Christians.

With the Shimazu forces were a troop of Buddhist monks who destroyed Christian churches and missionaries whenever they found them, so the timely arrival of two ships enabled Sorin to evacuate most of the Christians to Shimonoseki.

Usuki Castle in Oita, Kyushu, is now a park famous for its cherry blossoms in spring

Other Castles in Kyushu

Other castles and castle ruins in Kyushu include: Hitoyoshi Castle, Nakatsu Castle, Oka Castle, Funai Castle, Saga Castle, Saiki Castle, Nobeoka Castle, Obi Castle and Yatsushiro Castle.

Kyushu Castles Map

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