Toyama Castle is located almost in the very center of the former province of Etchū and is surrounded by a wide plain with a large number of rivers. The very first castle on the banks of the Jinzu River was built in 1543 by Jimbo Nagamoto. The Jimbo clan were vassals of the Hatakeyama clan and governed the western part of Etchū Province. The eastern part of the province belonged to their rivals, the Shiina clan, who were also Hatakeyama vassals. Beginning in the 15th century, the influence of the ancient Hatakeyama clan gradually weakened, and as a result, the Jimbo and the Shiina fought constant wars for control of the province. Meanwhile, the forces of the Ikkō-ikki movement periodically intervened, helping first one side and then the other.
In the 1550s, the Jimbo managed to defeat the Shiina, but the Shiina formed an alliance with the powerful daimyō Uesugi Kenshin. In 1560, Kenshin captured Toyama Castle after a fierce battle. Jimbo Nagamoto managed to escape, but two years later he submitted to the Uesugi clan.
Kenshin appointed Kojima Motoshige, a former vassal of the Jimbo clan, as commander of the castle. In 1569, Toyama was attacked by a combined force of the Ikkō-ikki and the Shiina clan.
After Uesugi Kenshin’s death in 1578, Oda Nobunaga took control of the region and appointed Jimbo Nagatsumi as the commander of Toyama Castle. However, as a result of a vassal uprising in 1581, the Jimbo once again lost control of the castle.
The castle passed to Sassa Narimasa. Sassa Narimasa (1539–1588) was a vassal of Oda Nobunaga. He fought alongside Nobunaga at the Battle of Anegawa (1570) and the Battle of Nagashino (1575), and he also helped suppress Ikkō-ikki uprisings. Narimasa was considered an expert in firearms tactics, and in battle he often commanded units of arquebusiers.
Narimasa greatly expanded and rebuilt the castle, adding new moats and towers. He also began flood-control projects, which transformed the area around the castle from marshland into fertile rice fields.
After Nobunaga’s death in 1582, Narimasa sided with Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s opponents. At the Battle of Shizugatake, Hideyoshi’s main enemies were defeated, and he was able to extend his influence over the Hokuriku region. Hideyoshi appointed his general Maeda Toshiie to govern Kaga Province. In response, Narimasa fortified the border with Kaga Province. He also launched a preemptive attack on Suemori Castle, but was driven back by Maeda’s forces.
In August 1585, Hideyoshi personally led an army of 100,000 men and invaded Etchū Province. Toyama Castle surrendered after a week-long siege. Hideyoshi then appointed Maeda Toshinaga (1562–1614), the son of Maeda Toshiie, as commander of Toyama.
In 1595, Toshinaga moved to Kanazawa Castle. During the Sekigahara campaign, Toshinaga sided with the Tokugawa, and as a result his rights to his lands were confirmed. He became the first daimyō of the new Kaga Domain, which included most of the former province of Etchū. The domain’s capital was the castle town of Kanazawa. Toshinaga decided to make Toyama his residence after retiring as head of the clan, and for that reason he significantly rebuilt Toyama Castle. The walls and moats were strengthened, and new buildings were added.
After Toshinaga’s retirement in 1605, his brother Maeda Toshitsune became the head of the clan and the domain. In 1639, Toshitsune divided the Kaga Domain among his three sons, creating the separate Toyama Domain. This domain went to Maeda Toshitsugu (1617–1674), but at first it did not include Toyama Castle itself. By 1659, Toshitsugu reached an agreement with the Kaga Domain, and through an exchange of territories he obtained Toyama Castle and the lands around it. In 1661, he received permission from the Tokugawa shogunate to reconstruct the castle, which had been badly damaged in the fire of 1609. However, no information has survived as to whether a new donjon was built. The descendants of Toshitsugu governed Toyama Castle until the Meiji Restoration of 1868.
The castle was partially destroyed during the earthquake of 1858, and the structures that survived were dismantled in 1871 by decree of the Meiji government.
In 1882, at the request of local activists, the castle ruins were officially designated by the authorities as “Toyama Park.” In 1885, the buildings of the Toyama Prefectural Government were constructed on the site of the former main enclosure, the Honmaru. After a fire in 1930, these buildings were rebuilt outside the castle ruins. From 1940 onward, the castle grounds once again became a public park.
In 1954, an Industrial Exhibition was held in Toyama Park, and to commemorate it a “Toyama Castle donjon” was built out of reinforced concrete.
This modern reconstruction is a fake donjon: its silhouette was clearly inspired by the surviving donjon of Hikone Castle. The architect was Yamamoto Katsumi, who had no prior experience in castle reconstruction. The building now houses a historical museum.
Most of the structures on the castle grounds were reconstructed around the same time. The only authentic structure in the present-day castle is the Chitose Gate, which was returned here in 2007. Previously it had been the gate of the Chitosegoten Palace (built in 1849), and after the castle was dismantled it “moved” into the possession of a wealthy farmer.
Some stone walls and moats from the historical castle have survived. The castle grounds also include the Sato Museum of Art and Tea Ceremony. It was opened in 1961 through the efforts of Sato Sukekuro, a businessman and tea master. Although the museum building resembles a fortification, it has no connection to the castle and is simply a stylistic imitation. Near the museum there is a small but picturesque traditional Japanese garden with a pond. In 2017, Toyama Castle was included in the list “Another 100 Remarkable Castles of Japan” (Top 200).
See also
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Wakayama Castle
Wakayama Castle was built in 1585, when Toyotomi Hideyoshi ordered his uterine brother, Hashiba (Toyotomi) Hidenaga, to construct a castle on the site of the recently captured Ota Castle. The purpose of this construction was to secure control over the likewise newly conquered Province of Kii. Following an already established tradition, Hidenaga entrusted the project to his castle-building expert, Todo Takatora. Takatora carefully inspected the future castle site, personally drew up several designs, created a model of the planned castle, and took part in the work of laying out the grounds (nawabari). For the construction he brought in more than 10,000 workers and completed the large-scale project within a single year, which was considered extremely fast by the standards of the time.
Takada Castle
During the Sengoku period, the lands where Takada Castle would later be built were part of Echigo Province and were controlled by the Uesugi clan.
Kishiwada Castle
The celebrated 14th-century military commander Kusunoki Masashige (1294–1336), who owned extensive lands south of what is now the city of Osaka, ordered one of his vassals, Kishiwada Osamu, to build a fortified residence. This order was carried out around 1336. These fortifications became the first structures on the site of what would later become Kishiwada Castle. From the beginning, the castle stood in a strategically important location—roughly halfway between the cities of Wakayama and Osaka, south of the key port of Sakai. Because of this position, it changed hands several times during periods of warfare.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
