Exploration of Cultural Properties in Ozu City①

Designation:06/18/1957

Located at the entrance of Honmaru (Keep of the castle), the Koran Yagura Turret is connected to the castle tower on the north side through a yagura corridor.
It was destroyed by a big earthquake in Ansei 4 (1857) and reconstructed 3 years later in Manen 1 (1860). It was thought that the weatherboard outer walls were changed to the current stucco walls in the reconstruction.
This turret has Chinese Tang Dynasty style eaves called Nokikarahafu in the center of the top roof. At the southwest corner, it has a trapezoid shaped Ishiotoshi.
The main feature of this building is the handrail on the balcony on the first roof, which was made to sit outside of the window. The handrail has a pole with a mock jade ball, called Gihoju, on top at each corner. It’s very rare that a turret has this type of handrail and thus this turret is considered to be the most formal building next to the castle tower on the site.

Designation:06/18/1957

This turret is the largest of the 4 turrets that exist in the Ozu Castle site. It is as large as the castle tower and its magnificent keep can be described as a small castle tower.
It is thought to have been built in the beginning of the Edo period. It was destroyed by a big earthquake in Ansei 4 (1857) and rebuilt two years later in Ansei 6 (1859). It can function as a kitchen, which is very unique for turrets. During wartime, it was used to prepare meals for soldiers staying in the castle. For that reason, one third of the first floor is dirt and it has latticework windows for ventilation. On the north side of the second floor, there is a chidorihafu eave (a triangular shaped gable) with a window, called katomado, which means a window with a flower shaped top.

Designation:06/18/1957

The Owatayagura Turret is an independent tower located on the east corner of the Ninomaru Bailey. It stands closest to the Hijikawa river, which flows in an L shape along the corner. The turret played an important role for defense of the east side because the turret made it possible to keep watch on both the upper and lower streams of the river all at once.
The exact date when the turret was originally built is not known but it was reconstructed in Tempo 14 (1843). It has trapizoid shaped openings on the outer walls called ishiotoshis, which were used to attack enemies right under the turret. A unique feature of these ishiotoshis is a lattice window construction.
Due to severe damage caused by frequent floods, the turret was pulled down and reconstructed in Showa 34 (1959) and the stone walls of its foundation were raised about 2.6 meters.

Designation:03/08/1968

Shimodaidokoro is a storehouse with stucco walls and a gabled roof with a formal tile layering. A part of this house has a second floor. The exact date of construction is unknown. This is the only stucco building that still exists in the Ozu Castle site.
The outside is fully covered with stucco including the underside of the roof. It is thought to have been used as a food storage area for the castle. During the Meiji period and after, it was used for other purposes such as a prison and a silk-reeling factory storage area.

Designation:06/18/1957

This turret is located at the south corner of the outer moat of the Sannomaru Bailey. It is the oldest of all turrets that exist on the Ozu Castle site. The exact date that it was built is unknown. It was burnt down in a fire in Kyoho 7 (1722) and rebuilt 44 years later in Meiwa 3 (1766). As for building materials, Japanese hemlock was used in the key areas and pine was used for the pillars. The ridge plaque says that due to a financial difficulty of the Domain, in order to cut construction costs, official craftsmen were employed to cut timber instead of artisans.
The walls have thick areas called Drum Walls where bamboo tubes were buried. Usually the bamboo tubes were concealed with plaster (and in wartime, the drum walls were broken and opened to shoot through the tubes with matchlock guns).