Komaki Castle, properly known as Komakiyama Castle, was constructed in 1563 during the warlord Oda Nobunaga’s expansionist efforts. His goal was to defeat the neighboring warlord, Saito Tatsuoki, and take the province of Mino (now Gifu Prefecture). Oda Nobunaga, a military genius, recognized the importance of relocating to key strategic positions to expand his territories. For over ten years, Nobunaga had been based at the strategically important Kiyosu Castle in modern-day Aichi Prefecture. With his sights set on Mino, he chose to move his base of operations to a more northerly location.
According to legend, Nobunaga foresaw that his generals would resist relocating far from their established homes around Kiyosu. To address this, he first suggested building the new castle atop the distant and very steep 293-meter-high Mt. Ninomiya near Inuyama. As expected, his men balked at the idea, so he proposed the closer, lower, and more convenient Mt. Komaki instead. Unable to refuse their lord a second time, they agreed on Komaki.
The position of Komaki was ideal. Situated on top of an 86-meter-high hill, it provided an unhindered view across the vast Nobi Plain and surrounding areas, and it was surrounded by a small river that supplied water. Its proximity to Mino would also serve to psychologically unsettle the enemy.
Although Nobunaga only used the castle for four years, it appears he had intended to be based in Komaki much longer. The castle was very well designed, with many innovative features. It served as a template for Nobunaga’s most superb castle at Azuchi, constructed 13 years later. The designs and layout of both castles show many similarities. Recent research and excavations have revealed that Komaki was one of the earliest castles to extensively use defensive stonework, a feature that later became standard in all castles.
Of particular note were the large rocks stacked in three concentric rows around the top of the mountain. The upper ring surrounding the central bailey stood 3-4 meters high, while the middle and lowest rings were both about 2 meters high. One large rock weighing 190 kg was found with the name "Sakuma" written in sumi ink, believed to be that of an Oda samurai tasked with constructing the castle walls. This is the oldest known marking on an ishigaki (stone wall). Since that discovery, all stones unearthed at the site have been carefully washed and inspected for more brush marks.
Aside from the stone walls, the castle featured a 5.5-meter-wide Otemichi, a main path leading straight up the mountain. Nobunaga positioned the homes of his top retainers along either side of this path, ensuring that all his men were central to his needs. This feature was also seen at Azuchi years later.
Komaki was also Japan's first castle to feature a specially constructed Jokamachi (castle town) laid out below it. Partially defended by surrounding moats and 2-meter-high earthen walls, the town was laid out in a grid-like pattern south of the mountain. Nobunaga’s palace is believed to have stood on the flat, moat-protected precincts east of the mountain fortress. Interestingly, the layout of the castle grounds and the castle town was used again when Nobunaga built Azuchi Castle, although on a much larger and more elegant scale. Komaki was the trial, Azuchi was the perfected version.
Komaki Castle was abandoned in 1567 when Nobunaga ousted the Saito clan from what would be renamed Gifu Castle, establishing it as his new base of operations. Seventeen years later, thousands of samurai returned to Komaki for the Battle of Komaki and Nagakute. Komaki Castle didn’t see action until two years after Nobunaga’s death, when it became one of the sites of the Battle of Komaki and Nagakute in 1584. This historically important conflict initially began as a siege between the forces of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Nobunaga’s general and successor, and Tokugawa Ieyasu, his former ally. Ieyasu set his war camp on the long-abandoned Komaki Castle site. The conflict later escalated into a full-blown battle in the Nagakute region.
The 21 hectares of tree-covered mountain are preserved as a National Historical Site. The three-story keep on top of Mt. Komaki is a 1968 concrete reconstruction, which never existed during the time of Nobunaga or Ieyasu. Although there is little information, the keep houses some interesting relics and an easy-to-understand diorama of the Battle of Komaki and Nagakute. Ongoing research means that archaeological digs are often taking place, and new gates, paths, stone walls, and details are continually being discovered at the innovative Komakiyama Castle.
See also
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Sunomata Castle
Oda Nobunaga, as part of his “final solution” to the conflict with the Saitō clan, conceived the construction of a fort in the Sunomata area, which was intended to serve as a forward base for an attack on Inabayama Castle (later renamed Gifu). Sunomata was a swampy area located between Ogaki Castle, a stronghold of the Oda clan, and Inabayama, the main fortress of the Saitō clan. Earlier attempts to build fortifications in this area, carried out by Oda generals Sakuma Nobumori and Shibata Katsuie, had all ended in failure. After that, the task was entrusted to the young vassal Kinoshita Tokichirō, who later became known as Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
-
Shibata Castle
The exact time when structures first appeared on the site of the present-day castle is unknown; however, it is generally believed that the first fortified buildings were constructed here during the Muromachi period, when these lands were controlled by the Shibata clan.
-
Okayama Castle
According to a number of accounts, the earliest fortifications on the site of present-day Okayama Castle appeared as early as the 14th century and were built by the Nawa clan. The Asahigawa River was used as a natural defensive barrier, protecting one side of the fortifications.
In the early 16th century, the Kanamitsu clan constructed a new castle here, which at the time was known as Ishiyama. In 1573, it came under the control of the Ukita clan, after which Ukita Naoie (1529–1582) launched large-scale reconstruction efforts. He did not live to see the work completed, and construction was continued by his son Hideie. -
Nagahama Castle
Hashiba, later known as Toyotomi Hideyoshi, received Odani Castle and the surrounding lands from Oda Nobunaga after the defeat of the Azai clan. However, Odani Castle was located high in the mountains, which made it poorly suited for the effective administration of the territory. For this reason, in 1575 Hideyoshi began constructing a new castle in the village of Imahama on the shore of Lake Biwa. Taking the character naga from Nobunaga’s name, he renamed both the village and the new castle Nagahama.
