Hagi Castle - Bukeyashiki Walls

Originally built to provide privacy and protection to the samurai estates, the dobei earthen walls of Hagi have become its most iconic feature. Look at any tourist information and you're likely to see a weathered old wall with a tree branch laden with natsu mikan fruits. Kind of like the first photo

Hagi Castle - Bukeyashiki Walls

Originally built to provide privacy and protection to the samurai estates, the dobei earthen walls of Hagi have become its most iconic feature. Look at any tourist information and you're likely to see a weathered old wall with a tree branch laden with natsu mikan fruits. Kind of like the first photo below!

I have never been to a castle town with so many surviving walls in different stages or preservation or repair. So why do we see so many walls of samurai estates but few homes? After the end of the Tokugawa Bakufu, the Mori moved to the much more convenient Yamaguchi and most of the high ranking samurai went with them. The great estates of these senior samurai were abandoned and the houses quickly became diaplidated.

With the fall of the feudal system, there were no more stipends for middle or lower class samurai so those who were left behind soon found themselves struggling to survive. Along came Obata Takamasa, himself born into a samurai family and now working in for the township offices. He proposed growing Natsu Mikan, a variety of large thick skinned mandarin oranges that ripen in the summer.

He started turning the abandoned estates into orchards and it became an instant hit. The mikan were prized throughout Japan since few fruits were available in the early summer months and mikan are refreshing in hot weather. Soon the Hagi Natsu MIkan started to bring premium prices throughout Japan. Five fruits sold for the equivalent of 1.5kg of rice. It was said that three productive natsu mikan trees per child was enough income for a family to live comfortably.

The walls of the samurai estates further aided the production of these mikan by protecting the trees from wind. While Hagi has a temperate climate and rich soil for growing fruit trees, harsh winds off the ocean often damaged trees or knocked fruits to the ground, but the walls saved the trees too. This is the real reason we are able to enjoy the true atmosphere of a samurai town today. The walls built to protect the castle and privacy of samurai estates now protect the vital lifeline of Hagi's orchards to this day. As the walls aged they were regularly repaired for their new found function. This is the reason we so walls in so many styles and shapes today. There was no one true form to preserve for repairs. In some cases more solid stone walls that would last longer were built to replace ruined earthen walls.