Tomo castle

• Built: c. 1600-1619
• Location: Tomonoura, Hiroshima han, Aki province
• Japanese: 鞆城 (Tomo-jô)

Tomo castle was the center of authority for a sub-fief within Hiroshima han, located in the port town of Tomonoura.

The castle was erected in the 1600s-1610s under Fukushima Masanori, who granted it and an associated 8,131 koku fief to his retainer Ôzaki Genba, who then ruled that territory with some 342 retainers of his own under him. The castle originally boasted a three-story tower keep (tenshu), a sizable main gate (Ôtemon), and yagura. The keep was torn down in 1619 in accordance with the "one castle per domain" policy imposed by the Tokugawa shogunate, but the gate and yagura mansion (yashiki) survived the first century of the Edo period, up until they were lost in a fire in 1711.

The former site of the castle is today home to the Fukuyama City Tomonoura History Museum.

References

• Aono Shunsui 青野春水, "Edo jidai Tomo-chô no seiritsu to kôzô" 江戸時代鞆町の成立と構造, Tomo no tsu Nakamura-ke monjo mokuroku IV 鞆の津中村家文書目録 IV (2009), 252.