Cherry blossoms at the former Taguchi Elementary School
During the cherry blossom season, I came to the former Taguchi Elementary School (ruins of Tatsuoka Castle) in Saku City.
I parked my car in the parking lot and walked along the side of the stone wall of the earthen mound. Tatsuoka Castle has a moat outside the star-shaped earthen mound, but the moats on the west and southwest sides were never built, so I walk along the side of the stone wall.
There is a service entrance (“Kuromon-guchi") on the northwest side of Tatsuoka Castle, which is crossed by a stone bridge. The current stone bridge was replaced in 1976, and this is where vehicles used to enter inside.
From the top of the bridge, the other side is a moat filled with water.
Now let’s go inside the castle site.
By the way, although it is called Tatsuoka Castle, it was built not as a castle but as “Jinya" the house of feudal lord. Norikata Matsudaira, the lord of the Tanokuchi domain, did not have the competence to own a castle, so he obtained permission from the shogunate to build it as Jinya. However, in my explanation, I will use words such as “castle" and “castle site".
It may be a little difficult to understand the picture, but there is a stone monument erected on the right side of the black gate of the earthen mound.
This was a monument erected in 1931 to honor a teacher named Kinjiro Ezawa, who worked at Taguchi Elementary School. Ezawa, who was born in 1871, became an elementary school teacher at the age of 15, and after working at several schools, he started working at Taguchi Elementary School in 1891, where he worked for 41 years until 1931, when he retired. Upon his retirement, volunteers erected a monument on the school grounds.
Today, it is not possible for a public school employee to work at the same school for more than 40 years, nor is it possible to erect a monument to honor an individual on school grounds.
The former Taguchi Elementary School building.
It is a pity that the school name finally has “former" in front of it.
At the end of March this year, four elementary schools (Taguchi, Usuda, Aonuma, and Kirihara) in the Usuda district of Saku City were merged and closed.
On April 11, the opening ceremony of the new “Usuda Elementary School" was held at a different location.
The “Odaidokoro" (kitchen) and cherry blossoms.
This cherry tree was not here when Tatsuoka Castle was completed. Most people would not be in favor of cutting down the cherry trees if they were to be restored to the way they were when the construction was completed.
Rather than thinking of restoring something that has changed over the course of history to its original appearance, I think it is better to think of the idea of carefully passing on what has been inherited from the past to the next generation, with repairing and necessary updating.
It would be devaluing history to judge everything on the basis of “whether it is related to a historical site or not," and to discard what is not related.
Cherry blossom petals are dancing in the wind.
Since the school is closed and there are no children there, I walk around the school building this time.
Instead of going to the main entrance, I start from the west side of the school building.
There are two school buildings, the north building and the south building, with a courtyard in between. The main entrance is on the north side of the north building.
This is the courtyard between the north and south school buildings.
The south building is connected to the north building by a corridor.
The south side of the south school building. There are cherry trees here as well.
This is outside the earthen mound on the south side. There is no moat here.
I walked along the south school building to the east.
When I get to this area, I saw water in the moat.
The boundary between the moat and the outside is like this.
On the east side of the south school building, there are restrooms and a gymnasium.
I walked between the main school building and the gymnasium.
I walked north through the front of the gymnasium to the schoolyard side. The photo shows the west side of the gymnasium. (The gymnasium is angled away from the school building, so it would be more accurate to call it the northwest side.)
The north side of the north building. The gymnasium can be seen a little to the left.
I have reached the main entrance.
Returning to the east side again, I checked the east side of the gymnasium.
The bridge at the east service gate. The current bridge was newly built in 1934 and repaired several times. It was partially damaged when I saw it before. (2018)
After this, I looked north along the moat, saw the “Ote-mon"(Main Bridge) and the Shokonsha Shrine, but my interest this time was Taguchi Elementary School, so I will stop here.
According to the “Basic Plan for the Development of Historic Tatsuoka Castle Site" issued by Saku City in March 2021, the city’s policy is as follows.
Ideally, the city’s policy is to restore the historic site to its original state, and “restore the site to a state as close as possible to that of Tatsuoka Castle at the time of completion while maintaining the structures that make up the current historic site. And to utilize it according the policy.
As I have written in the past, I believe that the school should be included in the development of this historic site in order to cherish the history of its use, rather than aiming for the original state at the time of its completion.
In fact, I was quite angry with Saku City until a while ago, because I had seen the “Draft Basic Plan for the Development of the Historic Site Tatsuoka Castle Ruins" before this development plan was completed. (the document is not dated).
What made me angry was the following notation.
As the evaluation of the existing elements within the castle.
“(2) Elements other than those constituting intrinsic value
a) Taguchi Elementary School
* The elements are not related to the historic site.
* The gymnasium, swimming pool, playground equipment, and other related facilities need to be removed.
* The school is scheduled to close in March 2023."
“(b) Taguchi Shokonsha Shrine
* This is an element that is not related to the historic site.
* Although not directly related to the historic site, the shrine was built in 1879, immediately after the abandonment of Tatsuoka Castle , and has a long history and deep connection with the Taguchi area."
It was 1875 when they started to use the Odaidokoro (kitchen) as a school, even before the establishment of the Shokonsha Shrine. But they didn’t say the school has connection with the local community and has long history. That is devaluing the school. I couldn’t help but be annoyed, wondering what the school board thought about schools.
But the 2021 basic plan changed the wording a little.
“(a) Taguchi Elementary School
* Taguchi Elementary School is a facility with a history closely related to the community, although it is not directly related to the historic site.
* The school is scheduled to close at the end of March 2023.
* In order to restore the site to its original state (the state of Tatsuoka Castle at the time of its completion), the gymnasium, swimming pool, playground equipment, and other related facilities will be dismantled, removed, or relocated as necessary."
“(b) Taguchi Shokonsha Shrine
* Although not directly related to the historic site, it is an important element in the history of Tatsuoka Castle and has a close relationship with the local community, as its predecessor was the “Sanja-sama", a shrine dedicated to the feudal lords of the Tanokuchi clan, which existed from the time the castle was built. And it was also where the war dead of the Hokuetsu war of the Tatsuoka clan were enshrined."
The fact that they brought up a shrine enshrining a feudal lord that existed before the shrine was founded in 1877 suggests that they want to avoid its removal and relocation at all costs.
But let’s leave that aside for now.
They wrote about the elementary school as “a facility with a history of close ties to the community" at last. In reality they have to think that way from the beginning. A municipality would be meaningless if it didn’t take care of its residents as well as the history of the community.
Anyway, since the draft has been slightly changed from the original plan to the direction I wish. I hope that Saku City will do its best until the next step, which is “how to make the history of more than 140 years of use as a school compatible with the historic site".
[Reference] (written in Japanese)
“Basic Plan for the Development of Historic Site Tatsuoka Castle" (March 2021, Saku City Board of Education)
“Basic Plan for the Development of Historic Site Tatsuoka Castle (Draft)" (no dated / Saku City Board of Education)