The Early Castles
The remains of the earliest known castle in Japan can be found at the Yoshinogari Excavation
in northwest Kyushu. Dating back to the Yayoi Period (300 BC - 250 AD), While it can hardly be
called a castle in the traditional sense, many of the castle elements familiar to us today
can be seen in a more primitive form at Yoshinogari: fences, towers, storehouses, and moats.
Also found in 400,000 square meter site were the remains of bodies injured by arrows and
stone swords - a clear indication of the battles which must have taken place at this site
almost 2,000 years ago.
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It was around the same time of this village that rice farming had come to Japan from the
mainland of Asia. With it came the emergence of a social heirarchy; soon, early Japan was
beginning to organize herself into clans around the wealthiest landowners. By around the
5th century, the balance of power had organized to the point where all of 'civilized' Japan
was under one central rule. While the emporer was technically the ruler, true political
power lay in the hands of the largest clans. This time period from about 400 AD to 710 AD
is generally known as the Yamato Period.
The Yamato Period
Sometime in the 4th Century the Yamato extended their rule into Kudara (what is now southern
Korea), but were later forced out by the Chinese. They then spent over a century trying to
reestablish a foothold on the peninsula, but in 663 they suffered a great loss at the battle
of Hakusukinoe and were driven out for good. The Kudara were allies with the Yamato during
this battle, and many of them were also exiled to Japan.
Every cloud, it seems, has a silver lining. The new Korean immigrants brought with them
experience in castle building, which led to new variations in caslte design. For example,
Mizuki, Ohono, and Kii castles are well known as Korean-style castles. These castles were
built to defend dazaifu (government offices) from the same Chinese forces which had
beaten the Japanese off of the Korean peninsula. Takayasu, Yashima, and Kaneda castles are
also well known as Korean-style mountain castles. These mountain castles first appeared
late in the 7th century, and are very different from the mountain castles built later on in
the Heian Period. These castles, built by the
Kudura, are formed to surround the surrounding mountain valley with huge walls made of earth
and/or stones. This is virtually the same structure as the castles found in in Korea from
the same time period.
In 694 the capital of Japan moved to Fujiwara, and in 710 moved again to Heiji. The
castles at both of these capitals were imitations of the Chinese castles such as the ones at
Chyoahn (formerly a capital of China) and Rakuyou. Normally these castles were surrounded
by high strong walls called rajyou, but the small Japanese rajyou were rather like ornaments,
compared with the massive walls of their Chinese counterparts. Ancient Japanese castles were
not being made for defense.
The Heian Period
The Heian Period can be considered the start of the 'Middle Ages' in Japan. A newly imposed
tax system caused many poor farmers to sell their lands and become tenants of more successful
land owners. This allowed the largest landowners to gain wealth and political influence, at
the expense of the central government. For most of this era the government was controlled
by members of the Fujiwara family, through intermarriage with the Imperial family and clever
political maneuvering. However, this often led to inqualified men holding important
positions, which further weakened the effectiveness of the government. Soon, with increasing
and uncontrolled civil unrest, many landowners began hiring
samurai to protect their properties. Thus
began the seeds of military rule in Japan.
Castles were built at a greater rate in this period than ever before, but their size and
structure were simpler than earlier ones, and there is still a great difference between
Heian castles and the 'modern' castles which were to come later. The majority of the castle
owners at this time were samurai whose positions were comparatively inferior to later castle
lords. Most of these castles had less troops (about a dozen or so), and most were
mountaintop castles (yamajiro). These castles were mainly built as a place to flee
to in case of emergency. Yamajiro were not convenient to live in, so the owners usually
lived at separate locations.
The mountain castles were built by heaping stones along the top of the mountain and placing
soil forts at important points. They had partly built
ishigaki, which were not strong
enough for a real defense; they mostly served a decorative purpose. The main difference
between castles of this period and modern castles is that these castles did not have
tenshu (main keeps) or any surrounding castle
towns.