Taburi Castle
Taburijō is a yamajiro (mountaintop castle) overlooking Taburi Township, Toyota Municipality; it is situated on the border of the townships of Taburi, Higashi-Ôshima and Nakagiri. Ruins include earthworks such as trenches and baileys. The ruins were not easy to find and this site seems to be one for
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History
It is unknown when Taburijō was built, but Hayashi Yoshitoyo and Kumi Ujimitsu are said to have been castellans. Presumably these men were vassals of the Asuke-Suzuki Clan. It is thought that Taburijō was a satellite fort of Kibyūjō. Due to its strategic position on the road to Asuke, it likely played a role protecting the highway and Asuke itself. It may have also been used as part of a smokesignal system alongside nearby fortifications. In former times there was a bridge crossing the Tomoe River here, so the fort likely also watched over that. For more information see Kibyūjō and Asuke-Iimoriyamajō.
Field Notes
Taburijō is a yamajiro (mountaintop castle) overlooking Taburi Township, Toyota Municipality; it is situated on the border of the townships of Taburi, Higashi-Ôshima and Nakagiri. Ruins include earthworks such as trenches and baileys. The ruins were not easy to find and this site seems to be one for only dedicated local castle-enthusiasts, as it chiefly features on blogs of Aichi-based castle-explorers.
Taburijō has a single bailey complex. The hilltop is flattened into a bailey and then further protected by terraces and trenches. It also has the natural advantage of several large boulders in parts of the main bailey which form an additional barrier. Terracing is found in the north, south, and west, and there is respectably large trench protecting the eastern ridge. There are signs that there were tatebori (climbing trenches) on the hillside too.
There was supposed to be an easy-to-follow old road to a pass, and then I was then going to climb along the ridge to reach this site. The trail to this ruin is obscure, however, and I never found its start point, but came across it midway through after scrambling up some terrain. I then followed it until I found a forest road. I backtracked along that forest track when I realised that I had already come over the ridge that leads to the castle site - it's not really a pass as such. I tried to follow the ridge to another site on the same mountain mass but the ridge is hard to follow, being overgrown in parts. So I went up and down that forestry road, listening to a podcast called 'the Mystery of Fred the Head' as I went. When climbing on the ridge, however, I couldn't hear my phone's speaker from my pocket over the crunch of leaves, and this accumulated debris of several seasons made climbing difficult, even though I had boots and gloves. I escaped the mountain by crossing an ancient rice paddy which had receded into a swamp, nearly losing my boots in the bamboo-choked mud.
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| Castle Profile | |
|---|---|
| English Name | Taburi Castle |
| Japanese Name | 田振城 |
| Founder | Asuke-Suzuki Clan |
| Year Founded | Medieval Era |
| Castle Type | Mountaintop |
| Castle Condition | Ruins only |
| Historical Period | Pre Edo Period |
| Features | trenches |
| Visitor Information | |
| Access | Higashi-Okazaki Station on the Meitetsu-Nagoya Line; bus to Asuke; or, Jōsui Station on the Meitetsu-Toyota Line; bus to Asuke. Access: Not Recommended. |
| Hours | 24/7 free; mountain |
| Time Required | 45 minutes |
| Location | Toyota, Aichi Prefecture |
| Coordinates | 35.11808, 137.27868 |
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| Admin | |
| Added to Jcastle | 2024 |
| Contributor | ART |
| Admin Year Visited | Viewer Contributed |
| Friends of JCastle | |
| Shiseki Tanbōki | |
| Jōkaku Shashin Kiroku | |
| Shiro Rekishi Meguri | |
