Sunday, March 2, 2014

Tahara Castle -Medieval castle with modern entrance

Tahara Castle

-Medieval castle with modern entrance-




Overview


Name: Tahara castle (Tahara-jo)
Alias: Tomoe-jo (Whirl castle)
Place: Tahara-cho Tahara city, Aichi
Location: 34.673892703797954, 137.26950283802196
Type: Hill castle
Built: Originally around 1480, expanded after 1590
Remaining remnants: Stone walls, clay walls and moats
Title:

Brief History


Tahara castle (田原城) is located on a small hill in Tahara city, south of Toyohashi and at the root of Irago peninsula. Tahara city is placed at the center of Mikawa-wan bay, and suitable place to control shipping in the bay. The hill on which Tahara castle located was formerly surrounded by inlets, thus Tahara castle was a small but secure castle.


Tahara castle was built by Toda clan, a local lord of this area around 1480. When Kiyoyasu Matsudaira (1511-1535), a grand father of Ieyasu Tokugawa (1543-1616), advanced to eastern Mikawa province (east half of Aichi prefecture), Toda clan temporally followed to Kiyoyasu. But after Kiyoyasu's death in 1535, Toda clan became to support the expanding Imagawa clan, the warlord of Suruga and Totomi (both Shizuoka prefecture).

In 1547, Hirotada Matsudaira, a son of Kiyoyasu and father of Ieyasu, who was captured Anjyo castle by Nobuhide Oda(1510-1551), the warlord of Owari country (western Aichi prefecture), decided to send Ieyasu to Imagawa clan as a hostage, to get military support from him. 

Hirotada asked Toda clan to coordinate this sending and hand over Ieyasu, but Toda clan sent Ieyasu to Oda clan, not Imagawa clan, in exchange to money. In response to thism furious Imagawa clan attacked and captured this castle in the same year (Later Imagawa clan attacked Anjyo castle and captured Nobuhiro Oda, the eldest son of Nobuhide, and exchanged him with Ieyasu).

Subsequent to this Imagawa clan hold this castle over 10 years, but after the battle of Okehazama in 1560, Tokugawa clan became independent from Imagawa clan and aimed unification of Mikawa province. Tokugawa clan occupied this castle in the middle of 1560's and used as a branch castle of Toyohashi castle. 

In 1590, Tokugawa clan was transferred to Kanto region by Toyotomi government and Terumasa Ikeda (1565-1613) became a commander of both Yoshida castle and Tahara castle. Same as Yoshida castle, Terumasa expanded and reformed this castle. The secondary area, the entrance of castle, was intensively modified and seemed modern, but central area inside kept the medieval shape.

In Edo era, same as other castles in Mikawa province, Tahara castle was managed hereditary retainer of Tokugawa clan. Subsequent to Meiji revolution outer areas and all buildings were lost, but after WW2 imitations of turret and gate of secondary area was reconstructed.


Related Castles


Yoshida Castle -Huge castle of incompletion at Tokaido road-

Pictures (click to enlarge)






















































































































No comments:

Post a Comment