Hiroshima Castle Ruins (historic site)

This castle, also known as Rijo Castle or Zaima Castle, was built by Mori Terumoto as the new base for the powerful daimyo Mori clan. The Mori clan achieved success during the Jokyu War (1221) during the Kamakura period, and was awarded the position of land steward of Yoshida Manor in Aki Province (Akitakata City) by the shogunate. They expanded their influence from Koriyama Castle. Motonari was a particularly outstanding figure, and during the turbulent Sengoku period, he defeated powerful samurai from all over the country, including the Amago clan in Sanin, and became a great daimyo unrivaled in the Chugoku region. Motonari's grandson Terumoto also held great influence as a daimyo with a fief of 1.12 million koku under the Toyotomi government. He decided to move his base from Koriyama Castle to the mouth of the Ota River, a key point in the inland sea transportation system and politically, militarily, and economically advantageous. At the time, the mouth of the Ota River was called "Gokamura" and was said to have been a poor village overgrown with reeds. Terumoto, guided by local lord Fukushima Motonaga and others, inspected Koiyama and Futabayama, among other islands, and decided to build a castle on Aima, the largest of the Gomura. Construction of the castle was extremely difficult In the spring of 1589 (Tensho 17), Ninomiya Narito and Hoda Motokiyo were appointed as the construction magistrates, and construction began. However, the foundation work of building a moat in the low-lying marshes of the Kawaro Delta and raising the castle grounds with excavated soil and sand was extremely difficult. The materials and stones necessary for the construction of the castle were transported from Nihojima and Ebajima, and timber from Ukishima in Suo Province (Yamaguchi Prefecture). However, after about two years, this difficult construction was partially completed, and around February 1591, Terumoto moved into the new castle. The castle was about 992m east to west and 1,010m north to south, with the Honmaru and Ninomaru surrounded by an inner moat in the center, and the Sannomaru, where the houses of the clan's feudal lords and senior vassals were located, surrounded by an outer moat, and the Ota River was also used as a natural outer moat. The Honmaru was divided into upper and lower levels, and the upper level contained the Otate (palace), where the feudal lord lived and conducted government affairs. A five-story, five-storey castle tower was placed in the northwest corner, and three-storey smaller castle towers were lined up to the east and south of that. In parallel with the construction of the castle, the townspeople's town, waterways, and land routes were also developed, mainly on the south side of the castle. The great merchants that Terumoto invited from all over the country also participated in this project, and a neat grid-like layout of the town was completed. This was the birth of a new town, Hiroshima, which would become the political and economic center of the Chugoku region. As the history of Hiroshima progresses, Terumoto was defeated in the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, less than 10 years after he entered the castle, and Fukushima Masanori took over as lord of the castle. During the 20 years of Fukushima's rule, the production and distribution of goods flourished in Hiroshima, the population increased, and the town area gradually expanded. However, the Fukushima clan, as a feudal lord under Hideyoshi's patronage, was also targeted by the shogunate, and was demoted to Kawanakajima in Shinano Province (Nagano Prefecture) for renovating the castle without permission. The next lord of Hiroshima Castle was Asano Nagaakira, who moved from Wakayama in 1619. After that, the Asano clan continued to rule the domain for 12 generations for 250 years, until the Meiji Restoration. After the Restoration, Hiroshima Castle changed rapidly. In 1871, the Army's Chinzei Chindai First Sub-Barracks was established, and during the Sino-Japanese War in 1894 and 1895, the Imperial Headquarters was established within the Honmaru, and the castle was mainly used as an army facility until the end of the Pacific War. The outer moat was filled in at the end of the Meiji period, and the area was used for tram tracks and housing. The castle tower (formerly a national treasure) and Taiko Yagura (drum tower) remained, but were lost in the atomic bombing. However, in 1958, the castle tower was restored with reinforced concrete as a symbol of Hiroshima's reconstruction. Furthermore, in 1989, to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the construction of Hiroshima Castle, the Ninomaru was renovated, and in 1991 the Omote-mikomon Gate and Mikadobashi Bridge were completed, followed by the Hira-yagura, Tamon-yagura, and Taiko-yagura in 1994, restoring the original appearance of the Ninomaru. Date of designation: March 31, 1953 Summary: Designated area: 118,019.33㎡