Hirosaki Castle

Overview

Hirosaki Castle (弘前城, Hirosaki-jō) is a hirayama-style Japanese castle — a fortress built on a low hill surrounded by flat ground — constructed in 1611 at the start of the Edo period. It stands in Hirosaki Park in the Shimoshirogane-chō district of central Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture, in the far north of Japan's main island of Honshu. The castle was the seat of the Tsugaru clan, a tozama daimyō family — a lordly house classified as an "outside" ally of the Tokugawa shoguns rather than a hereditary vassal — which ruled Hirosaki Domain across Mutsu Province with a assessed income of 47,000 koku. A koku was the quantity of rice reckoned to feed one person for a year, so the figure measured both wealth and military standing. The castle is also known by an older name, Takaoka Castle (鷹岡城 or 高岡城, Takaoka-jō). It is listed among the 100 Fine Castles of Japan.

History

Construction was completed in 1611, in the sixteenth year of the Keichō era (慶長, a nengō or era name used for dating). That places the castle's completion eight years after the Tokugawa shogunate was established in 1603, at the very beginning of the Edo period, which ran until 1868. The Tsugaru clan had been confirmed in its territory in the north, and Hirosaki Castle became the administrative and military centre of Hirosaki Domain.

The castle's history includes restoration, reconstruction and destruction. The keep that visitors see today is not the original structure of 1611; the site has been rebuilt and repaired across the centuries. The castle is also recorded as the birthplace of Tsugaru Nobumasa, a member of the ruling house, and as the headquarters location of Hirosaki Domain — the seat from which the domain was governed.

What Stands There Today

The castle site is now Hirosaki Park, in Shimoshirogane-chō, Hirosaki. The surviving keep and the surrounding moats, stone walls and gates make it one of the most complete castle complexes in northern Japan, and it is recognised on the list of the 100 Fine Castles of Japan. The park is the setting for the castle's best-known modern identity: a mass of cherry trees that draw visitors each spring. The combination of the small keep, the water-filled moats and the mountain backdrop of the Hirosaki area gives the site a distinct character among Japanese castles, most of which lost their keeps in the upheavals of the nineteenth century.

The Name in Japanese

The castle's name is written 弘前城 and read ひろさきじょう in kana. In romaji it is Hirosaki-jō, often written Hirosaki Castle in English.

Breaking it down character by character:

• 弘 — read hiro in this name. It means "broad", "wide" or "vast". It is the same character used in the city name Hirosaki.
• 前 — read saki in this name. It means "before", "in front of" or "ahead". When it appears in place names it is frequently read saki or mae.
• 城 — read jō in this name. It means "castle". On its own the character can also be read shiro, which is the everyday Japanese word for a castle. The reading jō is the one used when the character is attached to a castle's name, as in Osaka-jō or Himeji-jō.

So 弘前城 literally means "the castle of Hirosaki". The first two characters together, 弘前, form the place name Hirosaki; the third character, 城, marks the building. Note that the reading saki for 前 is a local convention tied to this place name — the character's more common readings are mae (in front) and zen in compounds.

The castle's alternative name, Takaoka Castle, is written two ways: 鷹岡城, using 鷹 (taka, "hawk") and 岡 (oka, "hill"), and 高岡城, using 高 (taka, "high") and the same 岡. Both versions are read Takaoka-jō. The hawk-and-hill spelling and the high-hill spelling point to the same place name, and the castle carried this older designation before the Hirosaki name became standard.

Visiting and Context

Hirosaki Castle sits inside Hirosaki Park in central Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture, at the northern end of Honshu. The city is reachable by rail from Tokyo via the Tohoku region, and the park is a short distance from Hirosaki Station. The castle's coordinates place it at roughly 40.6 degrees north, 140.5 degrees east.

For readers studying Japanese, the castle is a useful vocabulary anchor. The word 城 (shiro, castle) appears constantly in Japanese place names and history texts, and the pattern of adding -jō to a place name is the standard way to name a castle. The name 弘前 also teaches a practical lesson: kanji readings in place names often diverge from the readings a dictionary lists first, and local convention wins. Recognising 弘前城 as Hirosaki-jō rather than guessing at the characters' default readings is exactly the kind of skill that reading Japanese maps and signboards demands.