Visit to the “Odaidokoro” of Tatsuoka Castle
I have been neglecting to update my blog again… This article was about in early May.
I visited Tatsuoka Castle “Goryokaku" in Saku City, Nagano Prefecture once in 2018, but the “Odaidokoro" was not open to the public at that time.
I heard that we can see the inside of Odaidokoro on the holidays in May, so I went to Tatsuoka Castle.
There was a city official at the entrance. Thank you for your work on a holiday.
Tatsuoka Castle was built by the feudal lord, Norikata Matsudaira. Strictly speaking, it should be called a “Jinya" (mansion of the feudal lord) because the feudal lord was not entitled to have a castle.
The construction began in 1864, and inside the stone walles and moat were built “Goten" (the residence of the feudal lord), huts for the feudal warriors, a guardhouse, a drum tower, and a gunpowder magazine. The construction was completed in 1867 and a celebration was held to mark the completion of the building, but in reality, although roofing tiles were prepared, they were rarely used and most of the roofs remained boards.
In 1871, Ministry of military affairs of the Meiji government announced the demolition of the castles in Japan. In Tatsuoka Castle, the earthworks were scraped and the moat was reclaimed, and the building was sold. It was allowed to leave only a part of the “Odaidokoro" for use as a school. (*)
Now, let’s go inside. When we entered, there was a dirt floor and a model of the building was displayed in the middle of the floor. It looked like made many years ago. The group of buildings in the center was the “Goten", and the yellow arrows indicates the “Odaidokoro".
The front of the castle wall is the main gate, the bridge on the left is the side gate, and the gate on the right is named Kuromon gate.
Looking from the entrance, the inside looks like this. Inside the rooms, there are signs that say “the wainting room for official" and “the wainting room for servant.
I took off my shoes and went up. This is the front of the wainting rooms.
The left side from the entrance looks like this, with some exhibits. I thought I could go up to the second floor since there were stairs, but it was forbidden to go up.
So we could only look up from below. But there were exhibits on the second floor as well.
On the first floor, the nameplates and boards of the school were leaned against the wall. On the right is “Taguchi Elementary School, Usuda-machi, Minamisaku-gun, Nagano Prefecture, ?…" I didn’t check the hidden part. I searched and found that “Taguchi Elementary School, Sebaiwa Branch" existed until 1972, so it might be the nameplate of the branch school.
The two next to it read “Usuda Junior High School", and the board tag in the foreground is written at the construction of an addition to Taguchi Elementary School in 1926.
The board on the left was written in 1926 as the Junior High School was constructed, maybe.
I went down to the dirt floor and looked up. I was worried about the torn shoji, but it is hard to repair by that height.
Looking up from the dirt floor towards the entrance.
Having walked around the building, I went outside. Let’s take a look around the building.
This is the other side of the entrance. There is a clock on it.
I also walked around the moat a bit. This is the bridge on the east side, where the side gate used to be.
Actually, the bridge could not be crossed in 2018. It had been repaired after that.
Inside the Goryokaku is the site of Taguchi Elementary School in Saku City.
Taguchi Elementary School will be closed in March 2023 due to the integration of four elementary schools in the city. Saku City is planning to dismantle and remove the school building. The city says that it will “restore the castle to its original state" and “aim for the restoration and maintenance of the castle", but what is the point of recreating a castle that was not completed from the beginning?
I think that the history of the castle, which has been used as a school for more than 100 years, should be cherished.
(But I guess that they will say it doesn’t help tourism, does it?)
(2021.06.17) The paragraphs marked with (*) have been modified after upload.