Construction of Kanazawa Castle began in 1580 on the orders of Sakuma Morimasa, a vassal of Oda Nobunaga. The castle was built on the site of the Ikko-ikki sect's Oyama Gobo temple, which is why it is sometimes called Oyama Castle. Morimasa managed to build several moats and begin construction of a castle town. However, after his defeat at the Battle of Shizugatake in 1583, he was executed, and ownership of the castle passed to Maeda Toshiie (1538–1599).
Maeda Toshiie had been in the service of Oda Nobunaga since 1551 and during that time rose from page to general. He participated in many battles: at Okehazama (1560), Moribe (1561), Anegawa (1570), Nagashino (1575), Shizugatake (1583), as well as in the Komaki-Nagakute (1584) and Odawara (1590) campaigns. After Nobunaga's death, he entered the service of Toyotomi Hideyoshi and held a position in the command headquarters in Kyushu during the Korean campaign. Before his death, Hideyoshi appointed him one of the five regents for the young heir Toyotomi Hideyori.
In 1583, Toshie completed the construction of the castle, and in 1590, he began a large-scale reconstruction, significantly expanding the complex. Kanazawa Castle occupied an impressive area of 600 by 400 meters and included four courtyards located in terraces from south to north. The main courtyard, hommaru, stood on the southern hill. A five-story, six-level donjon, tenshukaku, was built here, but it burned down in 1602 and was never rebuilt. After that, hommaru gradually fell into disrepair.
Below was the second courtyard, the ninomaru, separated from the hommaru by walls and a moat. It was here that the ruler's palace was located, making it the main center of the castle during the Edo period. Further down was the third courtyard, Sannomaru, also surrounded by walls and a moat. The entrance to the castle was guarded by a complex barbican gate called Ishikawa-mon. The lowest level was the fourth courtyard, Shinmaru, which housed the administrative buildings of the Kaga domain.
Throughout its history, the castle suffered from fires on several occasions, the last of which occurred in 1881 and destroyed many buildings. Nevertheless, the Maeda clan ruled the Kaga province from Kanazawa Castle for 14 generations, until the Meiji Restoration. During World War II, it was used as a military base for the Imperial Army, and after the war, it became the campus of Kanazawa University, which was relocated in 1995.
Some elements of the castle have survived since its foundation. The moats and stone walls of Ishigaki, as well as two 19th-century buildings, the Sanjyukken Nagaya warehouse tower (1858) and the Tsurumaru warehouse (1848), have survived to this day. The Ishikawa-mon gate complex has been preserved in its 1788 reconstruction and consists of a masugata, a barbican with a large yagura-mon gate and a small korai-mon gate. These structures, along with the Sanjyukken Nagaya tower and the Tsurumaru warehouse, have been designated as Important Cultural Properties.
In 2001, with the support of Sumitomo Corporation and local authorities, a large-scale reconstruction of the castle began. The first buildings to be restored were the Ninomaru: the Tsuzuki Yagura and Hishi Yagura towers, connected by the Gojikken Nagaya gallery. Their appearance was recreated based on mid-19th century drawings using traditional techniques and authentic materials. In 2001, these towers were opened to the public, and the Gojikken Nagaya, whose name translates as “long tower 50 ken (about 90 meters) long,” housed an exhibition dedicated to construction methods.
In 2010, the Kahokumon gate complex, which protected the bridge between the fourth and third courtyards, was restored. In 2015, the Hasizumemon gate barbican complex, which covered the main bridge between the third and second courtyards, was reconstructed next to the Tsuzukimon tower. In the same year, the Gyokusen Inmaru garden was recreated on the castle grounds.
The most recent reconstruction dates back to 2020 and concerns the Nezumitamon gate, a tower-type structure that burned down in a fire in 1884. The gate was named “mouse” because of the gray, “mouse-colored” plaster that covered it.
In 2006, the Japanese Castle Society included Kanazawa Castle in its list of “100 Outstanding Castles of Japan.” In addition, the entire complex has official status as a “National Historic Site.”
See also
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Kaminoyama Castle
Kamino-yama Castle stood at the center of an important logistics hub, in the middle of the Yonezawa Plain, which served as the gateway to the western part of the Tohoku region. Roads connecting the Aizu, Fukushima, and Yamagata areas intersected here.
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Imabari Castle
Tōdō Takatora (1556–1630) served at different times as a vassal of several famous clans—Azai, Oda, Toyotomi, and Tokugawa. He took part in the Battle of Anegawa (1570), the Battle of Shizugatake (1583), the invasions of Kyushu and Korea, the Sekigahara campaign (1600), and the Siege of Osaka (1614–1615).
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Iwakuni Castle
Kikkawa Hiroie (1561–1625) was the grandson of the famous daimyo Mori Motonari and a vassal of the Mori clan. Under Mori Terumoto, he fought in both Korean campaigns and took part in the defense of Ulsan Castle. During the Battle of Sekigahara, Hiroie stood with his 3,000-man force on the side of the Western Coalition; however, even before the battle began, he sent Tokugawa Ieyasu a secret message stating that he did not intend to fight Tokugawa’s troops. As a result of his inaction, 15,000 soldiers under Mori Hidemoto were also unable to enter the battle, since Hiroie blocked their path.
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Gujo Hachiman Castle
Gujo Hachiman Castle is located on 350-meter Mount Hachiman, near the confluence of the Yoshidagawa and Kodaragava rivers, and not far from the Nagaragawa River. During the Sengoku period, this area was of great strategic importance: it stood at a key crossroads of routes connecting Mino Province in the south with the Sea of Japan in the north, and Hida Province in the east with Echizen Province in the west.
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Amagasaki Castle
The founding year of Amagasaki Castle is traditionally considered to be 1617, when Toda Ujikané built his castle here, making it the administrative center of the Amagasaki Domain. However, as early as the Sengoku period, a fortress built by the Hosokawa clan already stood on this site. After the fall of Itami Castle in 1579, Araki Murashige—formerly a vassal of Oda Nobunaga who had rebelled against him—fled to this earlier castle.
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Hiroshima Castle
Mōri Terumoto (1553–1625) was the grandson and rightful heir of the renowned Mōri Motonari. When Terumoto became the head of the Mōri clan in 1571, he inherited vast territories covering a large part of the San’in and San’yō regions in western Honshū. In addition, the Mōri clan possessed the largest and most technologically advanced naval fleet of its time.
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Fukuyama Castle
After the defeat of Toyotomi Hideyori’s supporters in the Osaka Campaigns of 1614–1615, many clans in Japan still remained not fully loyal to the Tokugawa shogunate, especially in the western Chūgoku region. Mizuno Katsunari (1564–1651), a cousin of Tokugawa Ieyasu, became the first of the Tokugawa house’s close retainers, the so-called fudai daimyō, to be relocated to this strategically important area.
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Tiba Castle
The founder of the Chiba clan is considered to be Chiba Tsunesige (1083–1180), who in 1126 moved his residence to the Inohana area and built a strongly fortified stronghold there. Although Tsunesige himself came from the Taira clan, the Chiba clan later supported Minamoto no Yoritomo, the future founder of the first shogunate.
