Fushimi Castle

Overview

Fushimi Castle (伏見城, Fushimi-jō) was a Japanese castle in Fushimi Ward in southern Kyoto, built by Toyotomi Hideyoshi at the close of the Sengoku period as his retirement residence. Construction began in 1592 and was completed in 1594, in the third year of the Bunroku era (文禄, Bunroku). The castle is also known as Momoyama Castle (桃山城, Momoyama-jō), and it gave its name to the Azuchi–Momoyama period (1573–1603), the era of unification under Oda Nobunaga and Hideyoshi.

The site is closely bound up with the end of Hideyoshi's life: he died at Fushimi Castle in 1598. The castle was also the scene of the Siege of Fushimi, and it served as the headquarters location of Fushimi Domain. Its history is unusually eventful for a single building — destroyed by an earthquake, rebuilt, dismantled, and finally replaced by a modern replica.

History

Toyotomi Hideyoshi ordered the castle built in 1592 as a retirement residence, and it was finished in 1594. It stood in Fushimi, a short distance south of central Kyoto, on ground that gave it control of the approaches to the old capital.

In 1596, the Keichō–Fushimi earthquake struck and destroyed the castle. Hideyoshi had it rebuilt. The castle's association with him is direct and personal: Fushimi Castle is recorded as his place of death, and he died there in 1598. Two other figures are also recorded as having died at Fushimi: Sassa Narimasa and Torii Mototada.

After Hideyoshi's death, the castle became a strategic prize in the struggle between Ishida Mitsunari and Tokugawa Ieyasu. That struggle produced the Siege of Fushimi, the engagement that opened the campaign leading to the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600. Torii Mototada, a Tokugawa retainer, held the castle and died in its defence.

The castle was eventually demolished in 1623. The site was later used for the tomb of Emperor Meiji.

What Stands There Today

The original castle no longer exists. Its site was given over to the tomb of Emperor Meiji, and the castle itself was demolished in 1623.

The current Fushimi Castle is a replica, constructed in 1964 near the original site in Fushimi. It is a modern reconstruction rather than a surviving or restored original structure, and it stands close to — but not on — the ground the 1594 castle occupied.

The Name in Japanese

The castle's name in Japanese is 伏見城. Its reading in kana is ふしみじょう, and in romaji it is Fushimi-jō. The name breaks down into three kanji.

伏 — read fu here. The character means "to bow down," "to lie prostrate," or "to hide." In place names it often carries the sense of a hidden or low-lying spot.

見 — read shi here (in isolation the character is read mi or ken). It means "to see," "to look," or "to be visible." Together, 伏見 (Fushimi) is a place name: the district in southern Kyoto where the castle stood. The combination is read as a single unit, not as two separate words, which is typical of Japanese place names.

城 — read jō here. It means "castle." This is the standard kanji for a Japanese castle, and it appears in the names of nearly every major one: 大阪城 (Ōsaka-jō), 姫路城 (Himeji-jō), 名古屋城 (Nagoya-jō). When 城 follows a place name, the whole word means "the castle of that place."

Two notes help with pronunciation. First, Fushimi-jō is often written Fushimijo or Fushimi-jo in English; the macron over the o marks a long vowel, so じょう is held roughly twice as long as a short jo. Second, the alternative name 桃山城 (Momoyama-jō) uses 桃 (momo, "peach") and 山 (yama, "mountain") — "Peach Mountain Castle." That name is why the art and architecture of Hideyoshi's age is called the Momoyama period, and why the broader span from 1573 to 1603 is called the Azuchi–Momoyama period, pairing 桃山 with 安土 (Azuchi), the site of Oda Nobunaga's castle.

Visiting and Context

Fushimi lies in Fushimi Ward in southern Kyoto, at coordinates roughly 34.94 north, 135.78 east. The area is well known to visitors for other reasons as well — it is famous for its sake breweries and for the Fushimi Inari shrine — so a trip to the district can combine several stops.

The castle to see today is the 1964 replica near the original site. The original ground is occupied by the tomb of Emperor Meiji, which is not the castle. Readers planning a visit should keep that distinction in mind: the building standing now is a twentieth-century reconstruction, not a surviving sixteenth-century structure.

For students of Japanese, Fushimi Castle is a useful anchor for several threads at once. It belongs to the Azuchi–Momoyama period, the transitional era between the warring states and the Tokugawa peace. Its name supplies the second half of that period's name. And its fate — built by Hideyoshi, destroyed by earthquake in 1596, rebuilt, fought over in the Siege of Fushimi, demolished in 1623 — compresses the whole arc of the unification era into a single site.