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Hirado Castle : A Study of Japanese Bibliography

This is all about Hirado Castle Ruins you want to know.
Every information you get on this site will be from a credible source based on Japanese history (books for reference).

"Kojō ezu(picture in Edo Period)" from 国立国会図書館

Collected by the Inagaki family, the Toba Daimyō from the mid-Edo period to the Meiji Restoration, as materials for military studies. There are about 350 illustrations, but there is no uniformity because only illustrations of castles, illustrations including castle towns, and old battlefield illustrations are mixed.

Another typical example of a castle picture in the Edo period is "The Shōhō Shiroezu", picture of the castle and castle town that the Edo Shogunate ordered the daimyō to create and submit,aggregating military information such as the buildings inside the castle, the height of the stone wall, the width of the moat and the water depth, etc., it also details the location and shape of the castle town and the mountain river.

Profile : Hirado Castle  

LocationHirado City, Nagasaki Prefecture
Also known asKameoka Castle, Hinotake Castle
Type of castleHilltop
Mountain's name
Elevation
ConditionReconstructed main keep
DesignationNational Cultural Properties
Nagasaki Historic Sites
Year built1599
Abolished1871
Castle lordMatsuura Shigenobu
Refurbishment lordMatsuura Takashi
Portrait of Matsuura Shigenobu from Wikipedia
Family Crest of Matsuura Clan from "Bukan Complete Works" (produced by CODH) adapted from "Classical Japanese National Data Set" (Kokubunken Collection)

The family crest was originally created from the pattern that the emperor and the royal family put on the kimono, and the pattern was made into a fixed pattern, and the one attached to his own oxcart is said to be the beginning of the family crest. The warlords drew large crests on the flag-fingers, used to distinguish enemy views on the battlefield, and used by the generals to determine which warlords were active and how much.

Hirado Castle admission

admission fee : 510yen(Adult) 300yen(high school students) 200Yen(under junior high school students)
admission time : am8:30-pm5:30
closing period : December 30 - December 31 reference official site (japanese)

Hirado Castle Google Map

Hirado Castle Images 

Simulated main keep (double-fifth floor) built in 1962
Matsuura Clan, who was a royal family in the northern part of Nagasaki Prefecture, was assigned to Northern Bizen and Iki as territories at the time of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's "Kyushu Conquest". He ruled the Hirado Domain, after the battle of Sekigahara since Tokugawa Ieyasu recognized the territory of 63,000 levels.
When the fourth lord, Matsuura shigenobu, obtained permission to build a castle in the Shogunate in 1703, his son has begun contracting for Hirado Castle. Nawabari, made with the advice of military scholar Yamaga Sokō , a small Honmaru and a large Ninomaru are placed at the top of the mountain, and a dock is located at the foot of the mountain facing the coast where landing boat was entered. It is a skillful territory where you can feel the characteristics of the Navy Matsuura Clan everywhere.

Although Hirado Castle was licensed to be built in 1703, construction of a new castle was rarely permitted in the middle of the Edo period.
A landscape that represents Hirado
You can see the roof and cross of St. Francis Xavier Memorial Church and the tiled roofs of Temples.
Tanuki(raccoon) Yagura
Legends related to the raccoon

When a raccoon family has settled under this Yagura around 1830s , all floorboards were peeled off to repair the tower. Then one night, a raccoon who turned into a Samurai came to the lord's sleeping place and wanted to live in Yagura, and pleaded to protect the castle forever. It is said he returned the floor to its original position next day. Since then, this Yagura has been called the Tanuki Yagura(≒Raccoon Turret)
Jizōzaka Yagura
Kitakoguchimon Gate
Hirado prospered as a trading port, with active exchanges with various countries from the Sengoku period to the early Edo period. Before Isolation, it flourished as an international trading port with China, Portugal, the Netherlands, etc.
Today, it is popular as a scenic tourist spot where you can feel the exotic atmosphere..

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