Fukushima Castle

Overview

Fukushima Castle (福島城, Fukushima-jō) was a Japanese castle in the centre of what is now Fukushima city, in Fukushima Prefecture. It served as the administrative headquarters of Fukushima Domain (福島藩, Fukushima-han), a feudal territory held by the Itakura clan. Construction began in 1413, the twentieth year of the Ōei era (応永, Ōei), placing its foundation firmly in the Muromachi period (1336–1573). No part of the castle survives; its site is now occupied by the Fukushima Prefectural Office and other public buildings.

History

The castle was begun in 1413, during the Muromachi period, an age when Japan was governed by the Ashikaga shoguns in Kyoto while real power in the provinces lay with regional warrior houses. A castle founded in this era was typically a fortified residence raised by a local lord to control the surrounding plain and its roads, rather than the massive stone-walled citadels of later centuries.

Over the following generations Fukushima Castle became the seat of Fukushima Domain, the feudal territory whose headquarters it was. The domain was held by the Itakura clan, a warrior house that governed the area from the castle as its administrative centre. As a domain headquarters, the castle was the place from which the territory was taxed, policed and administered — the political and military heart of the district.

The castle no longer exists. Nothing of its structures remains, and the ground it stood on has passed entirely into modern public use.

What Stands There Today

The castle site, in the centre of the present-day city of Fukushima, is occupied by the Fukushima Prefectural Office and other public buildings. The administrative role the castle once held has thus been inherited, in a literal and physical sense, by the prefectural government: the same central ground that housed the domain's headquarters now houses the offices of the modern prefecture.

The Name in Japanese

The castle's name is written 福島城. Its kana reading is ふくしまじょう, and its romaji is Fukushima-jō.

Broken down character by character:

• 福 — read ふく (fuku) in this word. It means "fortune", "good luck" or "blessing". It is the same character found in such familiar words as 幸福 (kōfuku, happiness).
• 島 — read しま (shima) in this word. It means "island". Together, 福島 (Fukushima) is the place name, written with the characters for "fortune" and "island".
• 城 — read じょう (jō) in this word. It means "castle". This is the standard suffix attached to the name of a Japanese castle, so that any castle name ending in 城 can be read as that place name plus -jō.

A note on the reading of 城: on its own the character is read しろ (shiro), meaning "castle" as a common noun. When it follows a place name, as here, it takes the Sino-Japanese reading じょう (jō). The same pattern gives such names as 大阪城 (Ōsaka-jō) and 姫路城 (Himeji-jō). The word 福島城 therefore parses cleanly as "Fukushima Castle", with the place name first and the castle character second — the usual order for Japanese castle names.

Visiting and Context

The castle's coordinates, 37.7505556, 140.4855556, mark the site in central Fukushima city. Because nothing of the castle remains, a visit is a visit to a location rather than to a monument: the ground is occupied by the Fukushima Prefectural Office and other public buildings, and there are no standing castle structures to see.

For readers of Japanese, the name repays attention. The place name 福島 combines "fortune" (福) with "island" (島), and the castle suffix 城 shifts from its native reading しろ to the Sino-Japanese じょう when attached to a name. Recognising that shift makes it possible to read castle names across Japan at sight. The historical vocabulary is worth fixing too: 城 (shiro/shō) for castle, 藩 (han) for domain, and 藩主 (hanshu) for the lord of a domain — the office held at Fukushima by the Itakura clan.