Tuesday, January 18, 2022

Fukuyama Castle

On January 2nd, I left Okayama and traveled to Hiroshima Prefecture. Fukuyama Castle was next on the schedule.  



It was close to the train station and was undergoing some reconstruction, getting ready for its 400th anniversary.




Some history notes from Jcastle.com


In 1619, Mizuno Katsunari, a cousin of Tokugawa Ieyasu, was the first of the Tokugawa hereditary vassals (fudai daimyo) to be stationed in the Chuugoku region. He was placed here at Fukuyama to be just between the non-hereditary vassals (tozama daimyo) in Hiroshima and Okayama. He received great support from the Tokugawa in the form of money, materials and buildings transferred from Fushimi Castle to build this rather large and strong castle (23 yagura and 10 gates) quickly. It shows the importance Tokugawa placed on showing his strength to these tozama daimyo. The castle was completed in 1622. 

Fukuyama Castle was one of the greatest castles of the Edo Period and many buildings survived the Meiji Restoration, but were mostly destroyed in the air raids of 1945. Only the Fushimi Yagura and Sujigane Gate survived.














Statue of Mizuno Katsunari, First Feudal Lord of the Fukuyama-han Domain






Statue of Abe Masahiro, Seventh Generation of the Abe Clan and Feudal Lord of the Fukuyama-han Domain























This was the first castle of my day.  More to come.


If you are interested in Japanese Castles, you can find links to other castle visits I've made on my Japanese Castle page.



6 comments:

kiwikid said...

Amazing place, good to see it is being restored.

Anonymous said...

When rebuilding a Japanese Castle. I hear that it will be rebuilt as faithfully as possible with reference to historical documents. It takes a lot of time and money.
I think it also has the purpose of attracting tourism. But it's important to pass on history to future generations. I hope that Fukuyama Castle will be successful rebuilt.
The time when you can see the Castle being rebuilt is limited. You visited at a precious time. I think it was cold but your day is sunny and wonderful.☀🏯🎁

Jeanie said...

That stone wall is so impressive. Can you imagine building that back during the time they did, with no cranes or vehicles to move that stone? So impressive!

Vireya said...

Interesting place! It looks like there were few other visitors, but fortunately no snow to make it difficult to walk around.

Queeniepatch said...

I think it is great that the Japanese take such pride in their history and spend time, money and energy on restoring castles and teaching history. It is a subject that has disappeared from the curriculum in some countries - too stuffy???!!!!

Leonore Winterer said...

After some smaller ones (and ones in ruins), this is a proper big castle again! Love it.