Morioka Castle

Morioka Castle (Morioka-jō), located in Morioka City, Iwate Prefecture (formerly Iwate District of Mutsu Province), is a historic Japanese castle. It was designated as a National Historic Site of Japan on April 17, 1937, and was selected as one of the "Japan's Top 100 Castles" in 2006.

Morioka Castle is often referred to as Kozukata Castle, but strictly speaking, Kozukata Castle was its predecessor and a different structure.

Overview

Morioka Castle served as the residence of the Nanbu clan, lords of the Morioka Domain during the Edo period. It was constructed on a granite hill at the confluence of the Kitakami and Nakatsu Rivers, and is a hirayama-style castle (hilltop-flatland castle) with a renkaku layout. The layout consists of the Honmaru (main bailey), the Ninomaru (second bailey) to the north, and the Sannomaru (third bailey) even further north. Each section is surrounded by stone walls and separated by dry moats. The original roofed corridor bridge between Honmaru and Ninomaru, known as Rōkabashi, has been replaced with the red-lacquered Tōunbashi bridge.

The castle also includes other defensive enclosures like Koshikuruwa, Awajimaru, and the uniquely triangular Sakakiyama Kuruwa that juts outward from the stone wall. Although a tenshudai (main keep platform) was constructed in Honmaru, a formal tenshu (castle keep) was never built due to restrictions from the Tokugawa shogunate. Instead, a three-story yagura (turret) was constructed and later renamed “Tenshu” by the 12th lord Nanbu Toshiyasu in 1842.

One of Morioka Castle’s most distinctive features is its stone walls made of white granite, which reach heights of up to 14 meters—an uncommon characteristic in the Tōhoku region, where earthen embankments were more typical.

Present Day

Most of the original castle structures were dismantled in the early Meiji period. Today, only a few remains survive, such as an earthen storehouse relocated to the grounds and a gate said to have come from the castle, now located at Hōon Zen Temple (though this has not been conclusively verified). Other surviving buildings, reportedly relocated from the castle, can be found at Shimizu-dera Temple, Kizuya Main Store, Iwatekawa (former Hamafuji Sake Brewery), and Tokusei Warehouse.

The site of the castle was transformed into Iwate Park in 1906, based on a design by Yasubei Nagaoka, a pioneer in modern park planning. Today, the park is home to cultural landmarks such as a stone monument for Kenji Miyazawa and memorials to Takuboku Ishikawa, making it a cherished historical and cultural destination.