Moat of Tatsuoka Castle
During the consecutive holidays in May, I visited Tatsuoka Castle.
After Taguchi Elementary School closes in March 2023, Saku City plans to improve Tatsuoka Castle. I came to see if there would be any changes.
I parked my car in the parking lot of Goryokaku Park and walked there.
In this article, I numbered the photos and marked the locations on the map below.
Kuro-mon Stone Bridge. Wisteria flowers were in full bloom. I missed to see the cherry blossoms here this year.
North corner of the moat.
View of the moat from the top of Ote-bashi Bridge.
At the east corner of the moat, there was a construction site. It was a holiday, so no work was being done.
It seems that they are stopping the water there.
Sandbags are piled up and soil is placed on top of the sandbags to create a slope.
A pipe can be seen at the stone wall. Perhaps a pump was used to transfer water from the moat on the east side to the moat on the north side.
There is still a little water on this side.
I guess that in the future, work vehicles will enter from this slope.
A little further on, the water had already completely disappeared.
This is a view of the moat from the east gate.
The stone wall seems to have collapsed in some places, so it will probably be repaired in the future.
Here is the southeast corner. There is an accumulation of earth, leaves, and trash. There is an iron staircase, but I wonder when it was installed.
The end of the moat on the south side. There is no water here either.
According to the “Historic Site Tatsuoka Castle Ruins Development Plan" (March 2021) prepared by Saku City, the period from 2021 to 2030 is designated as the first phase of Tatsuoka Castle’s development.
During this period, it appears that the plan calls for surveying the stonewalls, earthen mounds, and moat, as well as dredging the moat.
I guess when the water at the photo (6) disappears, they will probably carry out the accumulated earth and sand after conducting the necessary surveys.
This is the closed Taguchi Elementary School building.
Although no work has started so far, the plan is to demolish the school building and gymnasium this school year.
I do not intend to insist that the school should not be demolished, but I hope that the history of the school, which has existed for more than 140 years, will be preserved. The city says that the history of the school will be clearly indicated in the historic site, so I would like to see how it will turn out.
The swimming pool will be dismantled and used as a parking lot.
Trees that are in danger of falling or affecting the maintenance of the earthwork will be removed, but the cherry trees will basically be left in place for maintenance, and new trees will be considered for planting around the perimeter.
And the Ote-mon Gate will be restored during the first phase.
In the Meiji era, the Seiden (main hall), Shoin, Yakui-mon Gate, and Jyoyo-mon Gate were moved outside the site and existed. The city is aiming to designate and register these as cultural properties in their current locations.
It’s kind of an unorganized sentence.
Well, I will go back to observe from time to time in the future.