Kushima Castle (Ōmura Castle)
玖島城（大村城）
Kushima Castle (Ōmura Castle) is a historic castle in Kyūshū dating from the Azuchi-Momoyama to Edo period (begun late 1598, completed 1599, in use until the abolition of the domains in 1871), whose lord was Ōmura Yoshiaki, first lord of Ōmura domain, and his successors down to the twelfth lord Sumihiro — the Ōmura clan (Ōmura domain, 27,000 koku).
Overview
Overview
Kushima Castle, also known as Ōmura Castle, is a hilltop castle in Kushima, Ōmura City, Nagasaki Prefecture. Built on a peninsula surrounded by water on three sides, it is a sea castle whose defining feature is its direct frontage on Ōmura Bay. From its founding by Ōmura Yoshiaki, the first lord of Ōmura domain, down to the twelfth lord Sumihiro, it remained for some 270 years the political center of the 27,000-koku Ōmura domain. The site is now maintained as Ōmura Park.
Founding
After the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, with the succession to national power unsettled, daimyo across the country built castles in anticipation of renewed war. Yoshiaki likewise began work on a replacement for his existing seat at Sanjō Castle. Kuidezu was chosen first, but the terrain at Kushima proved better suited to a castle and the project was moved there — surrounded by sea on three sides, it was ideal for a sea castle easy to defend and hard to attack. Yoshiaki had worked on the construction of Nagoya Castle in Hizen and Katsumoto Castle on Iki during Hideyoshi's Korean campaigns, giving him exposure to the latest engineering of the day; he is also said to have learned firsthand how formidable a sea-girt castle could be while holding the Japanese-built fortress at Suncheon in Korea. Work began at the end of 1598 and was completed the following year, 1599.
The Great Renovation of 1614
In 1614, under the second lord Ōmura Sumiyori, the castle underwent a major expansion. Tradition holds that the work was guided by Katō Kiyomasa, builder of Kumamoto Castle and a close associate of Yoshiaki — though Kiyomasa had died in 1611, before the work began. The renovation moved the main gate from the north side, where it had been since the founding, to the south, and the walls around the new gate were built in the uchikomi-hagi technique using dressed stone. The gracefully curving stone walls running from the main gate toward the Itajiki turret survive to this day.
Layout
The castle comprised a main bailey, a second bailey and a third bailey, with six turrets. No tower keep was built in the main bailey, which instead held the lord's residence and the offices of domain government. Moats encircled the castle, and additional sutebori were laid out in the sea itself to keep attackers at a distance. Rough-piled nozura stone walls and earthworks from the original construction also survive, so that alongside the later uchikomi-hagi masonry a single site records the evolution of castle-building technique.
Present State
Kushima Castle never saw battle, and its role ended with the abolition of the domains in 1871. The stone walls of the main bailey and the southern moat remain, and in 1992 the Itajiki turret was rebuilt in timber. Ōmura Shrine, enshrining successive heads of the Ōmura house, stands on the main bailey site, and the grounds — celebrated for cherry blossoms and irises — draw many visitors as Ōmura Park.
Connection to Swords
No famous blade can be reliably documented as having been handed down at Kushima Castle. Rather than force a sword anecdote onto the site, it is more honest to set out the context in which the castle and its domain stood. In Hizen Province, where Kushima Castle lies, the Hizen school of swordsmiths founded by the first-generation Tadayoshi — a retained smith of the Nabeshima house of Saga domain — flourished throughout the Edo period, making Hizen one of Kyushu's foremost centers of sword production. That school, however, belonged to Saga domain; no distinct school of smiths is recorded as native to Ōmura domain, a small fief of 27,000 koku with no known celebrated retained swordsmith of its own. The Ōmura themselves, on the other hand, had served as local stewards here since the Kamakura period, and were a warrior house with real combat experience: the first domain lord, Yoshiaki, campaigned in Korea and held the Japanese-built fortress at Suncheon. His father, Sumitada, is remembered as Japan's first Christian daimyo. That the castle never came under fire also means the Ōmura, as an early-modern daimyo house, had little occasion to draw their blades in earnest — and their swords may reasonably be understood to have shifted in character from weapons toward heirlooms expressing the standing of the house. Ōmura Shrine on the main bailey site enshrines successive heads of the family and preserves that history today.
Highlights
- Curving uchikomi-hagi stone walls — built in the 1614 renovation, running from the main gate to the Itajiki turret
- Original nozura walls and earthworks — surviving from the castle's completion in 1599
- Itajiki turret — reconstructed in timber in 1992
- Ofunagura boat-house ruins — a feature unique to a sea castle, designated a Nagasaki Prefecture historic site
- Ōmura Shrine and the Ōmurazakura — the shrine to the domain's lords in the main bailey, and a nationally designated Natural Monument cherry
* Opening hours and admission fees are subject to change. Please check the official website before visiting.