A Culling of Culture: The Fall of Japan’s Castles

In our previous article, we discussed the origins of Japan’s castles and their evolution into the architectural marvels we know today. Considering their opulence and military importance, I was surprised to learn that the Japanese castles we know and love are only a few remnants of the many fortresses built throughout the country. For example, Kumamoto Castle once had seven satellite castles in surrounding towns that formed a defensive network in case of attack, according to historical records. Let’s discuss the several purges that brought about the fall of Japan’s castles.

Once Japan was unified under the Tokugawa shogunate in 1603, castle function shifted from military calculus to grand architecture. Descriptions from the time illustrate how castles designed prior to the new shogunate, like Kumamoto Castle, were resourceful ironclads, while later icons like Himeji Castle (the White Heron) and Nagoya Castle (famed for its golden roof ornaments) focused more on aesthetic beauty and projecting power through opulence.

Fear of Rebellion: The One Castle Rule

Regardless of glamor, the new shogunate only saw weapons of war that could threaten their new order. With the goal of discouraging uprisings within each domain, the government issued the “One Castle Per Province” (Ikkoku Ichijo Rei) decree in 1615. This decree forced the lord of each domain in Japan to dismantle all but one of the castles in the lands they controlled. In the Kumamoto domain, this meant that Kumamoto Castle remained, while Uki, Uto, and all its satellite castles were dismantled. Although the majority of the castles lost in this first great purge were auxiliary rather than primary, many of the lords who were newly appointed by the Tokugawa family after their victory built their own castles after 1601, meaning that they likely destroyed most of the castles that could have given us greater insight into the evolution of castles in the pre-Edo period.

Bakumatsu: The Fall of the Shogunate

Although this event is elided with the Meiji Restoration in English texts, Japan’s transition from a military dictatorship under the shogun to an eventual constitutional monarchy under the emperor was far from bloodless. Following this civil war, the government ended the domain system to institute the federal prefecture system we know today and ordered the destruction of castles as insurance. Although the number of castles destroyed is probably much smaller than the hundreds in the Edo period, the effect was much more dramatic. Even prized domain castles like Fukuoka Castle were wiped off the map, often with little evidence of what they looked like in their heyday.

The only castles to survive this were castles that were taken over by the newly formed imperial military as garrisons and a small few that were saved by locals, like Matsumoto Castle.

World War II: Casualties of War

As military garrisons, the handful of castles that remained became targets for American bombing raids just a few decades later during World War II. These bombs eliminated what was considered the most grand castle in Japan, Edo Castle, in modern-day Tokyo.

Today, there are only 12 castles with keeps that have survived from the pre-modern era (Genzon Jūni Tenshu):

Five are National Treasures: Himeji, Matsumoto, Inuyama, Hikone, and Matsue.

Seven are designated Cultural Properties: Hirosaki, Maruoka, Bitchu Matsuyama, Marugame, Matsuyama, Uwajima, and Kōchi.

Kumamoto Castle is not included as the keep was burned down during the Satsuma Rebellion, an attempted coup d’état after the Meiji Restoration.

Following the war, all of these sites were returned to the public, sparking a national movement for restoration. Whether it’s Osaka or Kumamoto, the 1960s brought concrete reconstructions that recaptured the essence of the castles that brought Japan into the modern era. In this way, these lions of stone have transformed from private weapons of war to public symbols of cultural resilience.