Kururi Castle

Overview

Kururi Castle (久留里城, Kururi-jō) is a Japanese castle in the city of Kimitsu, in the southern part of Chiba Prefecture. It sits on a hill 227 metres high, and its construction began in 1456, in the second year of the Kōshō era (康正, Kōshō), during the Muromachi period (1336–1573). By the end of the Edo period it was the seat of a branch of the Kuroda clan, the daimyō (大名, daimyō — a territorial lord) of Kururi Domain (久留里藩, Kururi-han). The castle is also known by a second name, Rain Castle (雨城, U-jō), from a legend that it rained twenty-one times during its construction — on average once every three days.

History

Kururi Castle was founded in 1456, the second year of Kōshō, in the Muromachi period. That dating places its origins in the middle of the fifteenth century, a century of prolonged civil conflict in Japan, when local lords across the Kantō region — the plain on which Chiba Prefecture sits — fortified hilltops and ridges to hold territory.

The castle occupies a hill 227 metres high, a position that gave its holders a wide view over the surrounding country and made the site naturally defensible. Its later history is bound up with the Kururi Domain, the feudal territory administered from the castle. At the end of the Edo period (1603–1868), the castle was home to a branch of the Kuroda clan, who held the domain as daimyō.

What Stands There Today

The site is in Kimitsu, in southern Chiba Prefecture, at coordinates 35.2875750, 140.0900278. The hill on which the castle stood rises 227 metres above its surroundings.

The Name in Japanese

The castle's name is written 久留里城. In kana it is くるりじょう, and in romaji it is Kururi-jō. The element 城, read jō, means "castle" and appears in the name of every Japanese castle, so the distinctive part of the name is the first three characters.

• 久 — read く (ku) here. The character means "long-lasting", "long time", or "enduring". It is a common element in Japanese place names and personal names, where it carries the sense of permanence.
• 留 — read る (ru) here. It means "to stay", "to remain", or "to detain". Combined with 久, it reinforces the idea of something that stays put or lasts.
• 里 — read り (ri) here. It means "village" or "rural settlement", and by extension one's home village. It is a frequent ending in Japanese place names.

Taken together, 久留里 (Kururi) is the place name, and 城 (jō) marks it as a castle. The three-character place name is written with characters chosen for their readings rather than composed as a phrase, so the name is best learned as a unit rather than translated word for word. Note that the final character of the place name, 里, is read ri, not the more familiar sato; place-name readings of this kind are common in Japanese and are worth flagging when learning the name.

The castle's alternative name, Rain Castle, is 雨城, read U-jō. Here 雨 (u, elsewhere read ame) means "rain", and 城 is again jō, "castle".

Visiting and Context

Kururi Castle lies in Kimitsu, in the Bōsō Peninsula region of southern Chiba Prefecture, within easy reach of the prefecture's wider network of historic sites. The hill setting, 227 metres high, is the defining feature of the site: the castle's position explains both its strategic value in the Muromachi period and the legend of the repeated rain that gave it the name Rain Castle.

For readers of Japanese, the castle is a useful case study in how place names work. The name 久留里 shows characters used for their sounds as much as their meanings, while 城 (jō) is the standard castle suffix encountered at sites across the country. The pairing of a formal name, Kururi-jō, with a popular nickname, U-jō, also illustrates how Japanese castles often carry a second, story-derived name alongside the official one.