Wakayama Castle

▶ Wakaura Castle in the Toyotomi Period — The Beginning of Castle Construction —
Wakayama Castle began in 1585, when Hashiba (Toyotomi) Hideyoshi, who had pacified Kishu, ordered his younger brother Hidenaga to build the castle. It is said that the construction magistrates at the time were Todo Takatora, Hata Nagato-no-kami Masachika, and Yokohama Ippan Hoin Ryokei, and that about 10,000 people were mobilized for the construction. Hidenaga remained at Yamato Koriyama, while Kuwayama Shigeharu was placed in Wakayama Castle as castellan. It is not known how much of the castle was actually built by the Kuwayama clan, but the layout appears to have been planned with Okaguchi Gate on the eastern side as the main entrance, and construction is thought to have progressed mainly around the honmaru. The stone walls built from green schist known as “Kishu blue stone” are thought to date from this early stage of construction.

▶ Wakayama Castle in the Asano Period — Toward a Full-Fledged Castle —
In 1600, Asano Yukinaga, who had distinguished himself at the Battle of Sekigahara, entered the castle in place of the Kuwayama clan. He then expanded Wakayama Castle. First, he changed the main entrance from the east side (Okaguchi) to the north side at Otemon Bridge (Ichinobashi), and also built the tenshu (main keep). In addition, he carried out expansion work to transform Wakayama Castle into a modern early Edo-period castle, including the honmaru, ninomaru, sannomaru, and oyashiki compounds, and also developed the castle town, using Honmachi Street as the main approach to the castle. In this way, the Asano clan laid the foundation for Wakayama and its castle town. In July 1619, however, they were ordered by Tokugawa Hidetada, the second shogun, to transfer to Hiroshima in Aki Province. Their tenure at Wakayama Castle lasted 19 years.

▶ Wakayama Castle in the Tokugawa Period — The Residence of the Kishu Tokugawa Family, One of the Three Great Tokugawa Branches —
In August 1619, Tokugawa Ieyasu’s tenth son, Tokugawa Yorinobu, replaced the Asano clan and entered the domain from Suruga (present-day Shizuoka Prefecture) as its lord with 555,000 koku. Thus, the Kishu Tokugawa family, one of the three great branches of the Tokugawa clan, was established. At that time, the shogunate granted 2,000 kan of silver, and large-scale expansions were carried out, including the enlargement of the Ninomaru and the addition of the Sannomaru and Minamimaru, in order to build a stronghold for the shogunate’s rule over western Japan as a “guardian of the southern seas.” They also improved the castle town and built Kishu Toshogu Shrine in Wakaura. By the end of the Edo period, Wakayama had developed into the eighth largest city in Japan.

The fifth lord, Tokugawa Yoshimune, carried out reforms within the domain, such as frugality and thrift, the development of new rice fields, and the installation of a petition box, rebuilding the domain’s finances. These policies later developed into the “Kyoho Reforms” after he became shogun. The tenth lord, Harutomi, devoted particular attention to culture among the successive lords, mastering the arts of gagaku and tea ceremony and earning the nickname “the lord of refinement.” The thirteenth lord, Yoshifuku, became the fourteenth shogun during the turbulent end of the Edo period and worked to strengthen the feudal system and the shogunate, including his marriage to Imperial Princess Kazunomiya. The Kishu Tokugawa family remained in the castle for 252 years, until the Meiji era.