Tanesato Castle

Overview

Tanesato Castle (種里城, Tanesato jō) is a Muromachi-period castle site in what is now the town of Ajigasawa, in Aomori Prefecture at the northern tip of Honshū, Japan's main island. The castle was founded in 1491, in the third year of the Entoku era (延徳, Entoku), during the long Muromachi period that ran from 1336 to 1573. Its coordinates place it at roughly 40.7° north, on the Sea of Japan coast of the Tōhoku region.

The site is protected by the central government as a National Historic Site. Since 2002 it has held that designation collectively with two other fortifications, Hirosaki Castle and Horikoshi Castle, under the joint name "Tsugaru clan Castle Sites" (津軽氏城跡, Tsugaru-shi shiroato). The grouping reflects the role all three played in the rise of the Tsugaru clan, the warrior house that came to rule the far north of Honshū through the Edo period.

History

Tanesato Castle was built in 1491, the third year of Entoku. The date places its foundation in the closing decades of the Muromachi period, a stretch of Japanese history in which the Ashikaga shoguns in Kyoto held steadily less real power and regional warrior families consolidated territory of their own. In the far north, that process produced the Tsugaru clan.

The castle stands on the Sea of Japan side of the Tsugaru plain, near the northern end of Honshū. In the late fifteenth century this was frontier country, far from the capital and its politics. A fortified site here controlled local routes and coastal movement rather than any national strategic point.

The site's inclusion in the "Tsugaru clan Castle Sites" designation alongside Hirosaki and Horikoshi castles ties it to the Tsugaru clan's territorial base. Hirosaki Castle, in particular, became the clan's principal stronghold in the Edo period. Tanesato belongs to the earlier phase of that story, when the family was establishing itself in the region.

What Stands There Today

Tanesato Castle survives as a castle site rather than a standing fortress. Its national protection comes through the 2002 designation of the "Tsugaru clan Castle Sites", which covers Tanesato, Hirosaki and Horikoshi castles together as a single historic property. The designation recognises the earthworks and layout of the site as historically significant.

The Name in Japanese

The castle's name is written 種里城. Its kana reading is たねさとじょう, and its romaji is Tanesato jō.

The name breaks down into three characters:

• 種 — read たね (tane) here. It means "seed". This is the character used for planting seed and, by extension, for the origin or source of something.
• 里 — read さと (sato) here. It means "village" or "hamlet", and in older usage a rural settlement or one's home countryside.
• 城 — read じょう (jō) here. It means "castle". This is the standard suffix on Japanese castle names, as in 姫路城 (Himeji-jō) or 弘前城 (Hirosaki-jō). On its own the character can also be read shiro.

Together 種里 (Tanesato) is a place name, and 城 marks the fortified site within it. The reading じょう follows the general rule that castle names take the Sino-Japanese reading of 城 rather than the native shiro.

The element 里 is worth noting for learners. It appears in a great many Japanese place names and addresses, where it often labels a rural district or a section of a town. Recognising it helps in reading maps and addresses across the country.

Visiting and Context

Tanesato Castle lies in Ajigasawa, a town on the Sea of Japan coast of western Aomori Prefecture, in the Tsugaru region. The castle site is one of three properties protected together as the "Tsugaru clan Castle Sites", so a visit fits naturally into an itinerary built around the Tsugaru clan's history.

Hirosaki Castle, the clan's best-known stronghold, lies inland to the east in the city of Hirosaki, and Horikoshi Castle is the third member of the designated group. Seeing the three together traces the Tsugaru clan from a fifteenth-century foundation at Tanesato through to the mature castle town at Hirosaki.

For students of Japanese, the site offers a compact lesson in how the language names places and fortifications: a native place name in two characters, 種里, capped by the Sino-Japanese 城 that turns any location into a castle name. The same pattern recurs at fortifications throughout the country, and the 2002 designation gives Tanesato a firm place in the official record of Japan's historic sites.