Fushimi Castle and "Momoyama-chō Masamune"

Two Fushimi Castles, at Shigetsu and Kohatayama

Fushimi Castle began as a retirement residence that Hideyoshi started building in 1592 (Bunroku 1) on the hill of Shigetsu (指月), overlooking the Uji River. The site is today's Momoyama-chō Taichōrō (桃山町泰長老) in Fushimi Ward, the area of the Kangetsukyō housing complex, and when Hideyori was born the following year it was turned into a full-fledged castle (Shigetsu Castle).

Shigetsu Castle collapsed in the great earthquake of the intercalary 7th month of 1596 (Keichō 1), and the castle was moved northeast to Kohatayama (木幡山; also called Fushimiyama). The keep and palaces were completed in the 5th month of 1597 (Keichō 2), and Hideyoshi died in this castle on the 18th day of the 8th month of the following year. After the castle fell in 1600 (Keichō 5) in a prelude to the Battle of Sekigahara, Tokugawa Ieyasu rebuilt it from the following year, and three generations of shoguns, Ieyasu, Hidetada, and Iemitsu, received their appointments as shogun here. The castle was abandoned in 1623 (Genna 9).

Daimyo residences live on in town names

When the castle moved to Kohatayama, samurai residences and town districts were laid out, mainly on the west side of the castle town, and daimyo from all over Japan built residences there. With the castle's abandonment the daimyo residences also lost their purpose, but many town names using daimyo names, official titles, and province names remained on their sites, and Fushimi has an unusually large number of town names that include people's names. Fushimi Ward has 68 town names beginning with "Momoyama" (桃山).

Around the Jurakudai, which Hideyoshi built in central Kyoto, there are also town names that are remnants of daimyo residences, such as 如水町 (Josui-chō, after Kuroda Josui) and 浮田町 (Ukita-chō, after Ukita Hideie).

The Fushimi Castle Site and Main Town Names from Daimyo Residences

Residence sites and other castle-town place names

Areas within a castle were called maru (丸), and old maps show the 大蔵丸 (Ōkuramaru, the enclosure of Natsuka Masaie) and the 徳善丸 (Tokuzenmaru, the enclosure of Maeda Gen'i). Jibu Pond (治部池, Jibu-ike) on the south side of the mock keep is part of the former inner moat, and Ishida Mitsunari's residence is said to have stood in this area.

The daimyo in a town name does not necessarily match the owner of the residence revealed by excavation. In an excavation in Momoyama Fukushima Dayū Nishi-machi, many tiles bearing the Satake clan crest, "a five-ribbed fan with a moon disc" (gohonbone ōgi ni tsukimaru), were found, and the site is thought to have been the residence of Satake Yoshinobu, lord of the 540,000-koku Hitachi domain. The owners of residences sometimes changed between the Toyotomi and Tokugawa periods, and research comparing excavation results with old maps continues.

Fushimi place names connected with daimyo of the castle town also include Chūshojima (中書島), which by tradition comes from 中書 (chūsho), the Chinese-style name for the title Nakatsukasa-no-taifu (中務大輔) held by Wakisaka. On the other hand, some town names arose from life in the castle town, such as Shumoku-machi (撞木町), said to be named after the shape of its pleasure quarter, and Ginza-chō (銀座町), where Ieyasu set up a silver mint (ginza).

"Momoyama," from peach trees planted after the castle was abandoned

Before the castle was built, this hill was called Fushimiyama or Kohatayama. After the castle was abandoned, peach and plum trees were planted on the site and grew thickly, and by the mid-Edo period the hill was crowded with people viewing the peach blossoms and is said to have come to be called "Momoyama" (桃山, "Peach Hill"). The "Momoyama" in the name of the Azuchi-Momoyama period also refers to this place in Fushimi.

The site of the main enclosure is Emperor Meiji's mausoleum

The Fushimi Momoyama Mausoleum of Emperor Meiji, who died on July 30, 1912 (Meiji 45), was built around the site of Fushimi Castle's main enclosure (honmaru). To the east is the Fushimi Momoyama East Mausoleum of Empress Dowager Shōken, on the site of the Nagoya-maru enclosure. The heart of the castle is imperial mausoleum land managed by the Imperial Household Agency, and apart from the approach it cannot be entered. Because of this it has escaped large-scale development, and the site preserves much of its appearance from around the time the castle was abandoned.

What excavations have found

No castle buildings remain above ground, but excavations are gradually revealing traces of the castle and the daimyo residences.

• Shigetsu Castle: gold-leaf tiles found throughout the estimated area. A 2019 (Reiwa 1) excavation estimated the moat to be more than 30 m wide, larger than the inner moat of Nijō Castle (25 m wide)
• Momoyama Chikuzendai-chō (the presumed site of Maeda Toshiie's residence) and Tōryō-chō (the presumed residence of Yamaguchi Suruga-no-kami): gold-leaf tiles found in quantity
• Momoyama-chō Nagai Kyūtarō: from a layer of ground leveled after a fire, a storage box's worth of burnt, blackened rice, including some pieces shaped like rice balls (onigiri)
• Momoyama Kōsetsu-chō: part of a stone wall found in 1977 (Shōwa 52) was moved to Momoyama Higashi Elementary School and is a Kyoto City registered historic site

Where to see traces of Fushimi Castle

Walk east along Ōtesuji from Fushimi-Momoyama Station on the Keihan Main Line or Momoyamagoryō-mae Station on the Kintetsu Kyoto Line to reach Gokōnomiya Shrine (Gokōnomiya Monzen-chō, Fushimi Ward). Its front gate (Important Cultural Property), said to have been moved from the main gate (Ōtemon) of Fushimi Castle, stands there, and gold-leaf tiles from Fushimi Castle are kept in the grounds. Emperor Meiji's mausoleum is on a hill about 1.5 km east of Fushimi-Momoyama Station and can also be reached on foot from Momoyama Station on the JR Nara Line. Along the south side of the approach lie leftover stones from Fushimi Castle's stone walls, where you can see yaana (wedge holes) made to split the stone. To reach the front of the mausoleum, you climb 230 stone steps.

The mock keep was built in 1964 (Shōwa 39) together with an amusement park (later Fushimi Momoyama Castle Castleland), and it stands in a different place from the original keep. It was kept after the amusement park closed in 2003 (Heisei 15), and today it can be seen from outside as a facility of Kyoto City's Fushimi Momoyama Castle Sports Park (Momoyama-chō Ōkura). The interior is not open to the public. Fushimi Kitabori Park, just to the north, is the site of a moat about 15 m deep, and you can walk along the bottom of the moat.

Walking around town, you will also find parks named after daimyo, such as Ii Kamon (井伊掃部) Children's Park, Nagaoka Children's Park, Kanamori Izumo Children's Park, and Matsudaira Chikuzen Park.