Gifu Castle
Symbol of the Sengoku Period
Gifu Castle has long been associated with the Sengoku, or Warring States period, and has long been a symbol of Gifu City. Originally known as Inabayama Castle, it was first built by the Nikaido clan around 1201. Over the last 800 years it has been held, enlarged and strengthened by daimyo such as the three generations of the Saito clan of Mino, and the Oda clan of Owari. The former Mt. Inaba, now known as Mt. Kinka, stands an impressive 329m high, and sports the current keep-like tower at the top. Below the castle flows the mighty Nagara River, acting as a natural moat. Gifu Castle remained in commission until it was mostly destroyed in the lead up to the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600.
Despite its reputation as a strong, impenetrable castle, it was once taken by a small band of just sixteen samurai!
Ando Morinari had been a close advisor to both the Viper of Mino, Saito Dosan, and his son Yoshitatsu, but with the death of Yoshitatsu, he had been shunned by the new lord, the 14-year-old alcoholic playboy, Tatsuoki. To boot, Ando’s son-in -law, Takenaka Hanbei, a military advisor to the lord of Gifu Castle, Saito Tatsuoki and his father, Saito Yoshitatsu before him also found fault with the young lord. Hanbei was a brilliant tactician, although a sickly, and effeminate man. A samurai of Gifu Castle once gravely insulted the strategist by apparently urinating on him as he passed below one of the castles’ defensive turrets. Hanbei’s complaints to the lord of the castle to have the perpetrator punished went unheeded, and so some time later, Hanbei entered the castle with his band of 16 on the pretext of visiting his sick brother, however used the entrance to make a faux attempt on the life of Saito Tatsuoki. The confused Tatsuoki, thinking a great army of attackers had entered the castle, fled for his life, abandoning the castle and his men. Hanbei took the castle easily, Having heard of the coup, Oda Nobunaga then requested Hanbei give the castle to him, however Hanbei refused, instead returning the property to Tatsuoki six months later, and then left the service of the Saito clan, joining the Oda forces. The greatly embarrassed Tatsuoki, who had lost a great deal of reputation and honor from the cowardly retreat would not keep the castle for long.
When Oda Nobunaga attacked the castle in September of 1567, many of the troops under Tatsuoki remembered his cowardice and either fled themselves or defected to the Oda. Nobunaga’s vassal, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (then known as Kinoshita Toukichiro) climbed the castle mount from the opposite side while Nobunaga and his forces waited at the front gates. On entering the fortress, he simply opened the main gates allowing Nobunaga’s troops to flood in and capture the castle easily. Having taken Gifu, Nobunaga then relocated his headquarters from Komaki Castle to the centrally located fortress and renamed it “Gifu.” Taking the first character from Qishan, (岐山) the mountain from which ancient China was said to have been unified, and the character “Fu” from the birthplace of Confucious, Qufu, (曲阜) which also means “the base of the mountain”. Nobunaga rebuilt the castle making it even more impressive in his effort to unify and control Japan.
Although the keep at the top of the mountain, now represents the castle, it was originally merely a watchtower from which to view the surrounding Nobi Plain, and a showpiece, a visible reminder to all for miles around of the might of the ruling daimyo. The actual main castle area itself sat in at the base of the mountain. There, Nobunaga built a magnificent palace four stories high, with over 20 rooms, and surrounded by four or five splendid gardens. It was said to be the biggest non-Buddhist structure in the nation at the time, and restoration work is currently being considered. A castle’s tower keep is known as a tenshu in Japanese. In the case of Gifu, Nobunaga titled his four story structure “Tenshu”, making Gifu Castle the first castle to have a tenshu. The first floor was used by Nobunaga as an audience chamber of sorts where he would hold meetings and war confrences with guests and generals. The second floor was the residence of his wife and children. Typical of Nobunaga, this too was an unusual practice, in that people — even family members — could be positioned above the daimyo. The third floor was a tea room where Nobunaga would entertain his guests, and the uppermost floor was an observatory, looking out over the castle township below.
Interestingly, while most traditional yamajiro, mountain castles of the period had the lord’s living quarters and audience chambers in palaces or mansions at the foot of the mountain, and the defensive structures at the top as a position of last resort, Nobunaga had living and audience chambers at a number of positions around Gifu Castle. Some were positioned at the base of the mountain, while another was believed to have been constructed half way up the mountain, and yet another is thought to have stood at the top. Depending on his mood, and who he would be meeting with, Nobunaga either came down to greet them, or allowed them to come up to see him.
Gifu and its castle became well known throughout Europe following comments written by Portuguese Jesuit Missionary, Fr. Louis Frois, who befriended Oda Nobunaga in 1569, even staying in the lord’s personal residences in Gifu while working on a series of manuscripts that would become books on Japanese history and culture. Frois wrote glowingly of Gifu, describing it as a “Rich center of trade and commerce,” and a “bustling Babylon”. He was apparently suitably impressed by the castle, too!
Nobunaga only abandoned Gifu as his base in 1579, handing it to his son and heir Oda Nobutada when the magnificent Azuchi Castle was completed. After Nobunaga’s assassination in 1582, and the death of his heir Nobutada, Gifu castle was awarded to Nobunaga’s third son, Oda Nobutaka. Gifu castle remained a highly important strategic fortress until late 1600.
Gifu Castle was mostly destroyed in one of the many inflammatory lead up battles culminating in the Battle of Sekigahara in late 1600. The castle, held at the time by Nobunaga’s grandson, Oda Hidenobu, was attacked by Tokugawa adherents, Fukushima Masanori and Ikeda Terumasa and greatly damaged in the Battle of Gifu, falling in just half a day. In 1601, Tokugawa Ieyasu ordered the destruction of Gifu Castles’ remaining structures. It is said that Ieyasu had the castle razed so as to dissuade any one from attempting follow the Oda and rise up against the Tokugawa. The parts of various structures from Gifu Castle were re-used in the building of nearby Kano Castle, and Mt. Inaba and the entire Gifu Castle area was then made off limits to all until the end of the Edo period.
The castle keep at the top of the mountain was rebuilt in 1910 as the first castle structure rebuilt for tourism purposes, but was destroyed by fire in 1943. The current keep, made of concrete, dates from 1956 and acts as a museum, displaying artifacts relating to Oda Nobunaga and the samurai, including suits of armour and weapons. The former palace and garden area at the foot of the mountain is undergoing continual research. As interest in the castle increases, further restoration work and research is being done on Gifu castle, with recent new discoveries of stone walls and unknown gateways, allowing us to understand more of Sengoku period — and Oda Nobunaga’s — castle planning and construction techniques.
It must’ve been amazing. It’d be great if they could rebuild the palace someday.
I’m always put off by the term “effeminate”. I can’t see a context where it’s not insulting to women.