Shibata Castle

Shibata Castle is a flatland castle located in Shibata, Niigata Prefecture. It served as the main castle of Shibata Domain, a powerful domain of Echigo Province, and functioned in that role throughout the Edo period. The castle's most distinctive feature is that three shachihoko (ornamental roof-ridge fish) sit atop the ridge of the T-shaped roof of the Sangai Yagura. Castle enthusiasts know it as an unusual design rarely seen anywhere else in Japan.

The castle's origins date back to the Sengoku period, but the foundation of the present castle was laid by Mizoguchi Hidekatsu, who was granted 60,000 koku at Echigo Shibata in Keichō 3 (1598). Hidekatsu was a warlord who served Toyotomi Hideyoshi. At the Battle of Sekigahara he sided with the Eastern Army (the Tokugawa side), which secured his domain. From then on, the Mizoguchi family ruled the area as lords of Shibata Domain for 12 generations until the end of the Bakumatsu period.

The castle was a flatland castle that used the Kaji River flowing to the north as its outer moat. The Honmaru was enclosed by Furumaru to the north and Ni-no-maru to the south, with San-no-maru placed to the south of that. After the Meiji Restoration, many buildings were dismantled under the Abandoned Castles Edict. However, the former Ni-no-maru Sumi Yagura (now relocated to the site of the Honmaru Teppō Yagura) survived. Together with the Honmaru Omote-mon gate, it has been designated a national Important Cultural Property. (The Sangai Yagura and Tatsumi Yagura were rebuilt in wood in Heisei 16 (2004). The Sangai Yagura is located within the Ground Self-Defense Force Shibata Garrison.) The three shachihoko of the Sangai Yagura are the symbol of Shibata Castle, and the castle remains popular with tourists today as restoration work continues.

Shibata developed as a castle town. Successive domain lords encouraged learning. The 8th lord, Mizoguchi Naoyasu, opened the domain school Dōgakudō.