Kururi Castle, Kimitsu, Chiba Prefecture, Japan

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• published: 14 Nov 2014
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Kururi Castle (久留里城) in Kimitsu, Chiba prefecture. Built in 1540 by Mariya Takeda. It was later captured by Satomi Yoshitaka, who used it as his base of operations against the Hōjō clan who were based in Odawara Castle. The Hōjō made three failed attempts to take Kururi Castle, until finally in 1564 the Hõjõ, with the help of samurai trained in the methods of shinobijutsu (castle infiltration), seized the castle and the Satomi fled. The Satomi weren’t fazed though and led an all out assault to reclaim the castle just three years later in 1567. In 1590 Toyotomi Hideyoshi laid siege to the Hõjõ base castle at Odawara defeating the Hõjõ. The Satomi had been asked by Toyotomi Hideyoshi to help in the attack on the Hõjõ, but support from the Satomi clan wasn’t given in time. Toyotomi Hideyoshi subsequently punished them by depriving the Satomi of their entire domain. Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s able ally Tokugawa Ieyasu assigned the castle to Matsudaira Tadamasa. A large castle town was established at the base of the mountain within the third bailey of the castle which now encompassed not only the mountain but the entire valley below. Kururi Castle was later successively ruled by the Osuga, Tsuchiya, and Kuroda clans after the Battle of Sekigahara (1600). In 1679 the daimyõ Tsuchiya Naoki was declared insane, his son was demoted, and the domain was suppressed. The castle was allowed to fall into ruin. In 1842 the domain was once again revived under Kuroda Naozumi when the shõgun appointed him to the castle with the hope of reinvigorating the peninsula. The Kuroda continued to rule the domain up until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. In 1872, by order of the new Meiji government, the castle was demolished and the lumber and stone was carried down from the mountain to be used for building public buildings and road works. Like most Japanese castles today, Kururi Castle’s ruins are now a public park. A new keep was constructed in 1979 in concrete from drawings and diagrams dating from the mid-1500’s. This new concrete keep was built next to the original castle’s base, not on the same site, to preserve the original foundations. The original foundations are situated right next to the new keep and are fenced off. A sign has been erected showing a photo of the original foundation stones. It is a 600 odd metre walk to the second bailey and then a further 50 metres or so to the main keep. One can see how easy it would have been to defend on all sides as the castle was built to take advantage of the steep terrain. Even today there is only one way to the main keep and that was protected on all sides by steep cliffs topped by a wall. The keep itself sits atop a narrow mountain top with a small bailey that was walled and had a single simple gate. It commands a grand view of the surrounding area which even today is over 90% heavily forested mountains. Fifty metres down from the main keep the second bailey was much smaller and also encircled by a wall with two simple gates. The Third bailey was actually 800 metres away down in the plains at the base of the mountain. This was similarly walled with two simple gates. There were no moats at this castle. Of interest are the walls which stand at only 5’2”. This was to enable the castles occupants to lob stones and flaming bails over the walls at attackers. During the construction of the original castle, legend states that it rained 21 times, or once every three days. For this reason the castle was also given the nickname U Castle (雨) or “rain” Castle. © James Kemlo