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*''Founder:Tokugawa [[Bakufu]]''
*''Founder:Tokugawa [[Bakufu]]''
*''Year:1864''
*''Year:1864''
*''Location:Hakodate,Hokkaido''
Goryokaku (‘five angle fortification’) castle was one of the final castles to be built during the samurai era ([[Tatsuoka castle]] in southern [[Nagano]] likely being the last). It was built from [[1857]] to [[1864]] in southern [[Hokkaido]] about 10 kilometers east of Hakodate by [[Takeda Hisaburo]]. Takeda (who later became an instructor at the Kaiseijo, the Shogunate’s institute for the study of Western learning) designed it with Western Renaissance castle building principles in mind (having learned these from Dutch books brought into Nagasaki). The final result looked far less like a typical Japanese castle and more like an American Civil War harbor fort. The castle was laid out in the form of a five pointed star and was primarily planned to be used against Western incursions into Japanese territory. It allowed for enhanced positioning of artillery batteries that a traditional Japanese castle did not. Because this was the first attempt by Japanese engineers to construct a castle that could survive Western artillery bombardment, the end result proved to be technically inferior to similar Western structures.
Goryokaku (‘five angle fortification’) castle was one of the final castles to be built during the samurai era ([[Tatsuoka castle]] in southern [[Nagano]] likely being the last). It was built from [[1857]] to [[1864]] in southern [[Hokkaido]] about 10 kilometers east of Hakodate by [[Takeda Hisaburo]]. Takeda (who later became an instructor at the Kaiseijo, the Shogunate’s institute for the study of Western learning) designed it with Western Renaissance castle building principles in mind (having learned these from Dutch books brought into Nagasaki). The final result looked far less like a typical Japanese castle and more like an American Civil War harbor fort. The castle was laid out in the form of a five pointed star and was primarily planned to be used against Western incursions into Japanese territory. It allowed for enhanced positioning of artillery batteries that a traditional Japanese castle did not. Because this was the first attempt by Japanese engineers to construct a castle that could survive Western artillery bombardment, the end result proved to be technically inferior to similar Western structures.
