Funaoka Castle

Funaoka Castle is now probably most famous for the large number of blossoming trees located on its grounds but is an impressive mountaintop fort in terms of scale with multiple baileys, chiefly the sannomaru (third bailey), now park space, and honmaru (main bailey) at the summit which is now dominat

History

Funaoka castle was first founded by Shibata Jitarō in 1200. In the Sengoku Period the Shibata clan ruled as vassals of the Date clan. In the Edo Period the Harada clan were castellans. Harada Munesuke was in charge of Funaokajō at the time of the Date Disturbance in 1671. Date Tsunamura had inherited the position of Daimyō in 1660 following the arrest of his father, Date Tsunemune, for drunken debauchery in Edo, although the arrest was not without warrant it was politically motivated by events in Sendai Domain. This caused a decade of unrest and domain-level conflict culminating in the request for the Shogunate to intervene by Aki Muneshige in 1671. Aki was summoned to Edo for questioning and as part of the investigations retainers on both sides of the dispute were interviewed. Harada Munesuke was one of the retainers supporting Tsunamura interviewed. He was uncooperative during the interviews and left in a foul mood. Another round of questioning began later in the month, held at the home of a high-ranking official. Harada grew increasingly distressed throughout the course of the day as it became apparent his answers contradicted Aki’s, bringing them into question. With the disagreement escalating, Aki came into the room were Harada was waiting and began shouting deprecations at him. Harada drew his sword and killed Aki. He himself was then cut down by investigators. Harada’s kill was illegal and his conduct judged dishonourable. This invited extreme punishment and his entire male family line

Field Notes

Funaoka Castle is now probably most famous for the large number of blossoming trees located on its grounds but is an impressive mountaintop fort in terms of scale with multiple baileys, chiefly the sannomaru (third bailey), now park space, and honmaru (main bailey) at the summit which is now dominated by a statue of Bodhisattva Kannon. From the honmaru you have a nice view, and the honmaru has a distinctively pleasing castle shape to it, but mostly there’s not much to see so you may as well go in spring to see the blossoms.

Gallery

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Castle Profile
English Name	Funaoka Castle
Japanese Name	船岡城
Alternate Names	Shibata Castle
Founder	Shibata Jitarō
Year Founded	1200
Castle Type	Mountaintop
Castle Condition	Ruins only
Historical Period	Pre Edo Period
Main Keep Structure	Reconstructed Otemon
Features
Visitor Information
Access	JR Tōhoku Main Line, Funoaka Station, 10 minutes walk to base of mountain.
Hours	24/7
Time Required	50 minutes
URL	Castle Website
Location	Shibata Town, Miyagi Prefecture
Coordinates	38.05508, 140.75873
Loading map... {"minzoom":false,"maxzoom":false,"mappingservice":"leaflet","width":"auto","height":"200px","centre":false,"title":"","label":"","icon":"Castlemarker.png","lines":[],"polygons":[],"circles":[],"rectangles":[],"copycoords":false,"static":false,"zoom":6,"defzoom":14,"layers":["CartoDB.Positron"],"image layers":[],"overlays":[],"resizable":false,"fullscreen":false,"scrollwheelzoom":true,"cluster":false,"clustermaxzoom":20,"clusterzoomonclick":true,"clustermaxradius":80,"clusterspiderfy":true,"geojson":"","clicktarget":"","imageLayers":[],"locations":[{"text":"","title":"","link":"","lat":38.05508,"lon":140.75873,"icon":"../images/1/1e/Castlemarker.png"}],"imageoverlays":null}
Admin
Added to Jcastle
Admin Year Visited	Viewer Contributed

2.00

(one vote)

Loading comments...