Shirakawa Komine Castle

Komine Castle, which was called the famous castle of the Oshu Kanmon region, was originally built in the middle of the 14th century by Prince Yuki in Komine-gaoka, and was completed in 1632 over a period of four years by the first lord of the Edo period, Nagashige Niwa, as a ladder-style castle.

Since then, the castle was occupied by 21 generations of seven families including Lord Sadanobu Matsudaira, but was destroyed by fire during the Boshin War in 1868.

The three-story turret was faithfully restored in 1991, and the front gate in 1994, based on historical facts. The cedar wood used for the restoration came from Inariyama, the site of fierce fighting during the Boshin War, and bullet holes from that time remain on the floorboards and pillars.

The castle was extensively renovated by Niwa Nagashige in 1632 during the Edo period (1603-1868), and is one of the most famous castles in the Oshu Kanmon region. The castle, with its beautiful stone walls and neat three-story turrets, was largely destroyed by fire during the Boshin War (1868-1868), but in the Heisei period (1989), it was faithfully restored in wooden form based on Edo period illustrations and excavation surveys, and was selected as one of the 100 best castles in Japan.

The stonewalls that collapsed in the Great East Japan Earthquake were restored based on traditional construction methods used since the Edo period, and in the spring of 2019, a “Declaration of Completion of Restoration of Komine Castle Stonewalls” was issued. Observing the stonewalls, which have been restored many times from the Edo period to the present day, you can see a variety of piling styles such as ochi-zukuri (drop piling) and kirikomi-hagi-nuno-piling.