* Image is for illustrative purposes only.Tahara Castle (Hako Castle)
田原城（巴江城）
Tahara Castle (Hako Castle) is a historic castle in the Chūbu region (Built around 1480 (Bunmei 12)). Its lord was Toda Munemitsu (later the Miyake lords of Tahara Domain).
Overview
Overview
Tahara Castle, also called Hako Castle, was a flatland castle of the "echelon" layout (teikaku-shiki) in Tahara, Atsumi District, Mikawa Province (present-day Hako, Tahara-cho, Tahara, Aichi Prefecture). It had no keep. It was built on a small hill facing the sea and was surrounded by the sea and water moats.
Founding
Around 1480 (Bunmei 12) Toda Munemitsu (Zenkyu) built the castle, which became the base of Toda control over Mikawa Bay. In the sixteenth century the Toda aligned with the Matsudaira and later with the Imagawa. The traditional account that the Imagawa attacked and took the castle in 1547 after Toda Yasumitsu sent Takechiyo (the future Tokugawa Ieyasu) to the Oda has been revised by recent research, and the castle's actual fall is estimated at around 1550.
Lords
After the Toda came Imagawa castle deputies, Honda Hirotaka and Honda Yasushige, the Iki clan, and Toda Takatsugu, Tadayoshi and Tadamasa. From 1664 the Miyake clan held the castle. In the Edo period Tahara Domain was a fudai domain of a little over 10,000 koku; the Miyake entered with 12,000 koku and ruled for just over 200 years until the Meiji Restoration.
Structure and present state
In the later seventeenth century the inlet to the east was reclaimed, so the main enclosure came to face land. Old photographs from the early Meiji years show that the walls of the main enclosure had namako-kabe cladding. Many remains such as stone walls survive, the walls being rough-stacked (nozurazumi) work thought to date from the sixteenth century. The buildings are post-Showa reconstructions: the Hako Shrine stands on the main enclosure site, a reconstructed turret and the Tahara City Museum are in the second enclosure, and the Gokoku Shrine is in the third. Memorial monuments to Watanabe Kazan and others stand in the third enclosure, and the Kazan Shrine, with Kazan as its principal deity, lies north of the former domain school Seishokan.
Connection to Swords
As the castle town of Tahara Domain, it preserves monuments and a shrine associated with Watanabe Kazan and others.
Highlights
- Reconstructed turret and Tahara City Museum — second enclosure
- Rough-stacked stone walls — thought to date from the sixteenth century
- Kazan Shrine — north of the former Seishokan domain school site
* Opening hours and admission fees are subject to change. Please check the official website before visiting.