Kuwana Castle

Kuwana Castle 桑名城
Kuwana, Mie Prefecture, Japan
Reconstructed Yagura of Kuwana Castle
Coordinates	Coordinates: 35°03′52.65″N 136°41′55.4″E / 35.0646250°N 136.698722°E / 35.0646250; 136.698722
Type	flatland-style Japanese castle
Site information
Open to the public	yes
Condition	partially reconstructed
Site history
Built	1601
Built by	Honda Tadakatsu
In use	Edo period
Demolished	1873

Kuwana Castle (桑名城, Kuwana-jō) is a Japanese castle located in Kuwana, northern Mie Prefecture, Japan. At the end of the Edo period, Kuwana Castle was home to a branch the Matsudaira clan, daimyō of Kuwana Domain. The castle was also known as "Ōgi-jō" (扇城) or "Asahi-jō" (旭城).

During the late Heian period and Muromachi period, the area of modern Kuwana was known as Jūraku-no-tsu (十楽の津) and was a major seaport on the east coast of Japan, controlled by a guild of merchants. The poet Socho described it in 1515 as a major city with over a thousand houses, temples and inns. The port was protected by three fortifications, (Higashi Castle, Nishi Castle, Misaki Castle) which made up what was known as the “Three Castles of Kuwana”. During the Sengoku period, the area came under the control of the warlord Oda Nobunaga, followed by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who initially installed Nobunaga’s younger son Oda Nobukatsu as ruler as all of Ise Province until the Battle of Odawara, In 1595, Hideyoshi assigned Ujiie Yukihiro a 22,000 koku domain, but he was dispossessed by Tokugawa Ieyasu after the Battle of Sekigahara. Kuwana then came under the control of Honda Tadakatsu, who built a new castle on the riverbank on what was roughly the site of the old Higashi Castle. Under the Honda, Kuwana-juku developed as a prosperous post town on the vital Tōkaidō highway connecting Edo with Kyoto. Kuwana Castle at this point was protected on three sides by a river. It had a six-story donjon 3 three-story yagura, 24 two-story yagura, 12 one-story yagura and 46 gates.