Iwatsuki Castle

Iwatsuki Castle was a flatland castle built in Saitama District, Musashi Province (present-day Iwatsuki Ward, Saitama City, Saitama Prefecture), and is a masterpiece of the water castle that makes the most of the low-lying terrain of the Kantō Plain. Views on who founded the castle vary. The long-standing theory holds that it was built in Chōroku 1 (1457) by Ōta Sukekiyo (Dōshin) and his son Ōta Dōkan during the confusion of the Kyōtoku Rebellion, which began in Kyōtoku 3 (1454). However, a theory based on a Meiō 6 (1497) document has also been proposed that the castle was built by Narita Shōtō, and the question remains unsettled. Iwatsuki Castle flourished most in the era of Ōta Sukemasa (1522–1591), functioning as the central base of anti-Hōjō forces in Musashi Province. Sukemasa cooperated with Uesugi Kenshin while opposing the Later Hōjō clan, and he navigated the three-way political and military situation in the Kantō region. In Eiroku 7 (1564), Sukemasa was ousted as castle lord by his eldest son, Ōta Ujisuke, and later took refuge with the Satake clan of Hitachi Province, continuing anti-Hōjō activities as lord of Katano Castle. Afterward, Iwatsuki Castle came under Hōjō control, but after the Siege of Odawara by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in Tenshō 18 (1590), Kōriki Kiyonaga, a retainer of Tokugawa Ieyasu who had entered the Kantō region, took up residence in Iwatsuki Castle, making it one of the bases of Kantō governance. After Ieyasu's entry into the Kantō in the same year, fudai daimyō succeeded one another as castle lords beginning with Kōriki Kiyonaga as the first, establishing Iwatsuki Domain. Throughout the Edo period, Iwatsuki was positioned as a key castle for defending the north of Edo, and the lords of Iwatsuki Domain were often daimyō who held senior posts in the shogunal council, such as rōjū and wakadoshiyori. During that period, the Kōriki, Aoyama, Abe, Itakura, Toda, Matsudaira, Ogasawara, Nagai, and Ōoka clans served as domain lords. The castle's layout had a composite defensive system combining water moats and marshland, and it took the typical flatland castle form in which the Honmaru, Ninomaru, and Sannomaru were surrounded by water moats. In particular, the Moto-Arakawa River, which wraps around the castle from north to east, and the surrounding marshes functioned as natural moats, making it difficult for enemies to approach. After the Meiji Restoration, the castle was abandoned, and many of the buildings within it were dismantled and relocated. Today it has been developed as Iwatsuki Castle Ruins Park, where earthen ramparts, dry moats, umadashi, and others remain. The Kuromon and Uramon of Iwatsuki Castle have also been relocated and preserved in the castle ruins park. Iwatsuki has been renowned since the Edo period as the 'Doll Town,' developing into a major production center of hina dolls and gogatsu ningyō (May dolls) for the Edo market.