Hagi Castle Town

Hagi: A Castle Town That Shaped Modern Japan

〜萩：近代日本を形作った城下町〜

I first visited Hagi on a whirlwind tour of major sites in the area in 2014. Due to bus delays, I was unable to explore Hagi as thoroughly as I had hoped, and I have always longed to return. Hagi is perhaps the best-preserved Edo Period castle town I have ever visited. While no original castle buildings remain and only a few samurai residences have survived, the layout of the castle town—including its roads and city blocks—remains impeccably preserved. In fact, you can still navigate the streets using maps from the 1800s.

The History of Hagi as a Castle Town

The history of Hagi as a castle town begins and ends with the Tokugawa Bakufu. Unlike many other great Edo Period towns that evolved from thriving Sengoku Period castle settlements, Hagi was newly established by the Mori clan at the beginning of the Edo Period. After their defeat at the Battle of Sekigahara (1600), the Mori lost most of their lands and were reassigned to this extremely remote region. While they had options for establishing their new base, they ultimately chose Hagi due to its natural defenses, access to the sea, and distance from direct Tokugawa oversight. The forced relocation to a remote province fostered anti-Tokugawa sentiment among Chōshū samurai, which may have contributed to their role in the downfall of the Edo Bakufu 250 years later. One legend suggests that throughout the entire Edo Period, the Mori lord was greeted each New Year with the question, "Lord, shall we attack the Tokugawa this year?"

For this profile of Hagi, I will start with the castle and work outward, eventually covering the farthest reaches of the city, which are deeply tied to the Bakumatsu Period - the end of the Tokugawa and the Edo Period.

Castle Structure

Although the Tokugawa "banished" the Mori to this remote province, Hagi would have been an ideal location for any warlord's center of power had it been more conveniently situated. The castle town is flanked by two branches of the Abu River, which split before reaching the ocean. The rivers and the sea provide natural defenses on all sides. At the tip of the peninsula is Mt. Shizuki, which sits in the farthest depths of the town and is extremely defensible—its only realistic vulnerability is from the sea. This fortified mountaintop provides panoramic 360-degree views, covering the ocean and the surrounding mountains before they descend into the city.

The castle itself is a complex structure, effectively merging two castles into one. In the Sengoku Period, it was common for a flatland castle to be paired with a nearby mountain redoubt (called Tsume-no-shiro). Hagi Castle follows this design. The flatland castle, which includes the honmaru and main keep, and the mountain redoubt are so closely integrated that they function as a single castle complex—one of the most unique and defensible designs I have seen. While some comparable large hilltop castles exist—such as Iyo Matsuyama Castle, which features a similar structure—the key difference is that Iyo Matsuyama's main keep and honmaru are located at the top of the mountain, whereas in Hagi, the primary castle structures are at the plains level making it a rare hybrid between a flatland and mountain castle. Extensive stone walls start with the gates of the Ninomaru and extend along the shores on both sides of the peninsula.

...main keep foundations, moats, ocean side etc.

One of this site's unique charms is the absence of modern additions like signs, trails, or fences, allowing visitors to explore freely. Scattered throughout the castle grounds are remnants of old stone walls, often overlooked. Some still bear traces of the clay walls that once stood atop them, though most have eroded over time. ... some more walls.

The Tsune-no-maru at the top of the mountain was even more well fortified than most tsume-no-shiro with a complete rings of stone walls and 7 yagura.

see more....

A distinctive feature of Hagi Castle is the visible traces of on-site stone cutting and quarrying used to construct its extensive walls. These remnants can be found both atop the mountain and along the shore. The extent of preserved quarrying evidence here is unlike any I’ve seen at other castles. Details here...

Sotobori The Sotobori, or outer moat, of Hagi Castle is a vital yet often overlooked aspect of the castle's defenses. While many visitors may stop by the North Gate (Kito-no-soumon 北の総門), they often bypass the rest of this critical defensive system. The outer moat connects the bay to the north of the castle with the Hashimoto River to the south, effectively cutting off the peninsula at the San-no-maru bailey. With only three gates across the outer moat, it formed a formidable defensive line. Guards carefully inspected those passing through during the day, and at night the gates were shuttered and locked.

Samurai Districts

Starting from the Sannomaru, the highest-ranking samurai lived closest to the castle. Today, many of these large estates have been converted into natsu mikan (summer orange) orchards which helped preserve the size of some of the these propertiesreflecting the landholdings of the samurai who once lived there. Several of these estates still have an original gate but the homes are long gone — more on that later! The only surviving senior samurai residence is the Kuchiba Residence. When the Mori relocated to Yamaguchi, the Kuchiba were entrusted with control of Hagi, ensuring the preservation of their home through the Edo Period.

Kuchiba residence... Yugawa....

Gates....

See the Bukeyashiki Buildings album for more details

Samurai Residences and Historical Preservation

Yugawa area....

Samurai Residence Walls

Hagi stands out among Japan's former castle towns for its remarkable number of surviving dobei earthen walls in various stages of preservation or repair. There is no doubt that the extent of these walls are the key factor to helping visitors step back in time. But while these walls remain, the samurai estates they once enclosed have largely disappeared. So, why do we see so many residence walls but so few actual homes?

When the Mōri clan relocated to Yamaguchi most of the high-ranking samurai followed. The great estates of these senior samurai were abandoned and the homes fell into ruin. For the lower and middle-class samurai who remained in Hagi, the loss of their stipends brought economic hardship. Enter Obata Takamasa, a former samurai, working for the local township offices. He proposed a new livelihood: cultivating natsu mikan, a large thick-skinned variety of mandarin orange that ripens in early summer. Obata began transforming the abandoned samurai estates into orchards and created an instant success. Since fresh fruit was scarce in early summer, Hagi’s natsu mikan became prized across Japan. Five mikan were worth the equivalent of 1.5 kg of rice. It was said that three productive trees per child could provide enough income for a family to live comfortably and send their children to a good school.

The walls of these estates protected the delicate citrus trees from strong coastal winds. While Hagi’s mild climate and fertile soil were ideal for fruit cultivation, the harsh sea winds could damage trees or knock fruit to the ground. As time passed, these walls were repaired and modified, not necessarily to preserve historical accuracy, but to function as windbreaks for the orchards. This is why Hagi's dobei walls appear in such a variety of shapes and styles today.

Originally built for defense, these walls ultimately safeguarded Hagi’s economic lifeline. In doing so, they inadvertently preserved the authentic atmosphere of a samurai town, making Hagi a rare historical treasure for enthusiasts to enjoy to this day.

Hamasaki Area & Hagi Marchants

The Hamasaki district of Hagi was a port town for fishing, shipping and trade. Contrary to other sections of this article, the Hamasaki area is focused on trade and non-samurai, but there is one distinctive feature related to the Choshu Domain: the Funagura, or domain boathouse. One of the oldest extant castle or domain related buildings housed domain owned boats for plying the river and nearby bay.

for more details see

hamasaki... homes...

Castle town

Having explored this far, we covered all the elements of Hagi as a castle town, but there are still some vestiges of this castle town that don't fit neatly into other sections.

Kodaka, Tokoji, Fushimi Gate,

Bakumatsu Period

And so we come to the Bakumatsu Period, literally the end of castle building and feudal times that gave rise to everything covered din this website!

The Choshu Domain and its samurai were instrumental in bringing an end to the Tokugawa Shogunate. In the mid-19th century, Choshu became a center of resistance against Tokugawa rule, particularly during the Bakumatsu period. Samurai from the Choshu Domain, including prominent figures such as Yoshida Shoin, Takasugi Shinsaku, and Kido Takayoshi, played pivotal roles in the Meiji Restoration. They were heavily influenced by Western ideas and modern military tactics, many of which were introduced by Yoshida Shoin, who mentored a generation of revolutionary leaders at his private school, Shoka Sonjuku. Choshu’s alliance with the Satsuma Domain and their military prowess during the Boshin War (1868–1869) directly led to the fall of the Tokugawa regime and the establishment of the Meiji government.

Yoshida Shoin, Takasugi Shinsaku, and Kido Takayoshi were from the lower-ranking samurai (gōshi or ashigaru) class within the rigid samurai hierarchy of the Edo period. Their position in the social structure and their physical and cultural distance from the Mori lords and the higher-ranking retainers in Hagi Castle Town likely contributed to their dissatisfaction with the Tokugawa system.

end

Hagi remains one of the most fascinating and well-preserved Edo Period towns in Japan, offering a rare glimpse into the urban planning, architecture, and social hierarchy of the time. Whether exploring its castle ruins, wandering through its historic samurai districts, or uncovering its pivotal role in the fall of the Tokugawa Bakufu and modernization of Japan, Hagi provides an unparalleled journey through history.

Transportation: & Visiting Hagi

Getting to Hagi is half the battle! On my first visit I took the overnight bus from Tokyo which was horribly delayed for bad weather and traffic, ruining half the time I had planned. On my second visit I spent the night and rented a bicycle to fully explore the town. Hagi is best explored by bicyle. Most major hotels have bicycles you can borrow and there are a few locations around town to rent them too. I used the Meirinkan as my start/end points and rented a bicycle from the Tourist Information Center there.

The information in books and on the internet is fairly sporadic. They highlight a few castle town features but tend to focus on the castle itself, walls of the castle town and the story of the Hagi's influence on the end of the Edo Period. Even some of the information on signboards and in brochures is too brief that it can sound confusing or conflicting. A good example of this is the Meirinkan, which depending on the explanation you read makes it sound like the building you see today was the original Hanko, which it clearly is not. It was built in the Meiji Period and at a different location!

Postscript

Like any of my feature articles, this one also required a significant amount of research and investments of time and materials to pull all this together in a castle focused cohesive story and bring it to light in English. I also reached out to the tourism organization which put me in touch with the Board of Education which also answered some questions or filled in details. There is no other English source like it, so if you see similar guidance following this, know that it started here first!

A significant portion of Hagi's tourism and historical promotion focuses on its role in the Bakumatsu Period and Japan's modernization. While this emphasis is valuable to Modern Japan's history, it has made it challenging to correctly identify which structures are truly from the Edo Period or follow the Meiji Restoration. For some of the figures involved with the modernization of Japan their legacy is what what follows the Meiji Restoration so it can be challenging to surely identify their samurai roots. For the purpose of this site, focused on the feudal period, it was important to identify this.

However, it is safe to assume that most individuals who played major roles in the late Edo Period were born into samurai families. This background provided them with the education and opportunities that would later shape their influence.

Some of the preserved residences and gates highlighted in Hagi date to the late Edo Period. While certain buildings may have been rebuilt or remodeled, they continue to reflect the architectural traditions and social structures of the time. For this reason, they are included here to illustrate the Edo Period roots of the town. I have only created separate profiles for samurai residences that were definitively built during the Edo Period and inhabited by samurai at that time.