Iwatsuki Castle

Overview

Iwatsuki Castle (岩槻城, Iwatsuki-jō) is a Japanese castle in Iwatsuki-ku, in the city of Saitama, Saitama Prefecture. It was founded in 1500, the ninth year of the Meiō era (明応, Meiō), which places its construction at the very end of the Muromachi period (1336–1573) — the century of civil war that preceded the unification of Japan.

The castle was inhabited by a succession of samurai lords over its long history. By the end of the Edo period it was the seat of the Ōoka clan, the daimyō (大名, lord) of Iwatsuki Domain. The site is now a Saitama Prefectural Historic Monument.

History

Iwatsuki Castle was built in 1500, in the ninth year of Meiō. The Muromachi period in which it rose was an age of collapsing central authority: the Ashikaga shoguns in Kyoto had lost control of the provinces, and local warrior houses built fortified residences to hold the land they claimed. Iwatsuki, on the flat Kantō plain north of Edo, was one of these strongholds.

Through the sixteenth century the castle changed hands repeatedly. The Battle of Iwatsuki Castle is recorded among the conflicts fought over it, as rival warlords contested the Kantō region in the decades before and during the unification wars. Over its history the castle was held by many samurai lords rather than by a single family.

With the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate, Iwatsuki became the seat of a domain. During the Edo period the castle's name was written 岩付城 — the same pronunciation, a different second character. At the end of the Edo period the castle was home to the Ōoka clan, who ruled Iwatsuki Domain as daimyō. The domain's headquarters were located at the castle, and the castle's history is bound up with the domain that took its name.

What Stands There Today

The castle site is a Saitama Prefectural Historic Monument. It lies within Iwatsuki-ku, in the modern city of Saitama, at coordinates 35.9513472, 139.7102389 — on the northern edge of the Tokyo metropolitan sprawl, in a district that was an independent city until it was absorbed into Saitama.

Iwatsuki-ku preserves the shape of the old castle town. The district is known today for its doll-making craft and for the Iwatsuki Ningyō museum, and the former castle grounds sit within this historic quarter.

The Name in Japanese

The castle's name is written 岩槻城. It is read いわつきじょう in kana, and romanised as Iwatsuki-jō.

Breaking it down character by character:

• 岩 — read iwa here. The character means "rock" or "boulder". It is a common element in Japanese place names, and it appears in the name of the district, Iwatsuki-ku.
• 槻 — read tsuki here. The character refers to the Japanese zelkova tree (keyaki), a tall elm-family tree long planted at shrines and used for fine timber. It is a rare character in everyday Japanese, but it is the standard way of writing this place name.
• 城 — read jō here. The character means "castle". In Japanese castle names it is almost always read jō, and it is the element that tells the reader this is a fortified site rather than a town or a family name.

The whole name therefore reads as "the castle of Iwatsuki", with the place name itself built from "rock" and "zelkova".

Two alternative names are recorded for the castle. One is 白鶴城 (Hakutsuru-jō), "White Crane Castle". The other is 浮城 (Uki-jō), "Floating Castle" — a name given to castles that appear to rise from water or marshland. During the Edo period the second character of the name was written 付 rather than 槻, giving 岩付城 with the same pronunciation.

Visiting and Context

Iwatsuki-ku is served by the Tōbu Urban Park Line, which connects the area to Ōmiya and to Funabashi in Chiba Prefecture. The district lies north of central Saitama and is reachable from Tokyo by rail in roughly an hour.

The castle site is a prefectural historic monument, and the surrounding district retains the street pattern of the old castle town. Iwatsuki is best known today for its traditional doll workshops, which give the area a distinct identity within greater Saitama.

For readers of Japanese, the castle's name is a useful case study in how place names are written. The character 槻 is rare enough that many Japanese speakers recognise it mainly from this place name, while 城 is one of the most productive characters in the language of Japanese history — it appears in the names of castles across the country, always read jō. Learning to recognise 城 as a suffix is one of the quickest ways to read Japanese historical place names.