Kurume History Walks
No.15 Castle and Mansions 1 『筑後将士軍談』に見える城と館（1）Castles and Mansions mentioned in history books of the late 19th century.
War History of Generals and Forces of Chikugo Province (Chikugo Shoshi Gundan, 1853) is the book,comprising 60 volumes of the history of the Chikugo Province. It was written by Yano Kazusada, a samurai ofKurume Domain and a researcher of the local history and culture. Its volume 45th and 46th focus on 171 castles
and mansions of Medieval Japan (12th -16th century).
This number introduces them in the southwest part of the city, except the Kurume Castle that was featuredin No. 12.

★Kurume Castle

1 Haruno House

Schematic diagram of Kurume

2 Okumamura Mansion

3 Yasutake Furumachi Kaizu Castle

4 Odorotsumura Mansion

6 Shirakuchi Nakamura Mansion

5 Arakimura Mansion

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

What is “castle” and “palace”?
Kazusada distinguished the terms “castle (jo or shiro 城)” and “mansion (kan or yakata 館)” in his books.

What is the difference?
CASTLE: Fortress or defense facilities. Diverse castles existed according to a historical background and acircumstance: a castle with a stately tower, stone walls or moats like Himeji castle; a mountain castle thatwas built using the natural environment such as on the top of a mountain, and that was equipped with mount,dry moat or bailey; a castle on a flat land surrounded by deep moats.
MANSION: Residence equipped with defense facilities such as mount and moat.
Besides, if the residences are equipped with full-scale defense facilities, we call it kanjo or yakatajiro

In Kurume1.

Haruno House (Harankogamachi)
These remains reportedly existed until the Edo period (17th-19th century). Since the person of Haruno

Chozaemon built a mansion in the late 12th century, his descendants continued to reside. It is considered thatthe mansion existed at today’s Harankogamachi, of which name sounds similar to their last name Haruno.
2.

Remains of Okumamura Mansion(Umemitsumachi)
That mansion is said to be a residence ofOkuma Sakonshokan (a lieutenant-general)
which

existed around the present-day

Umemitu Tenman-gu Shrine. The bookdescribed that there used to be an entrance ofdefense facilities in the east of the mansion,and three foundation stones were excavatedin 1824.
3.

Remains of Yasutake-Furumachi-Kaizu Castle (Sumiyoshi, Yasutakemachi)
It is said to be a residence of the Yasutake clan, which was built in 1508. They were attacked and defeatedby the enemy clan who ruled the province on the far bank of the Chikugo River in 1576. The presence of thecastle was known only from folklore and ancient records. In 1991, we carried out the excavation and weconfirmed that it really existed. It was a castle on flat land surrounded by a creek. There were ruins, well, hole
to dump garbage, earthen, mortar, stone mill, and so on.

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Kurume History Walks / No.15 Castles and Mansions

Excavation site
Remains of moat
Excavated site
Border of administrative
units

Current state of remains

Reconstruction according to the result

4.

Excavated earthenware

Remains of Odorotsumura Mansion (Nakatsu, Daizenjimachi)
Kazusada briefly wrote about these remains. It is said to be Odorotsu clan’s mansion. From 1989 to 1992,

we discovered large moat remains of 4 meters wide and 1.6 meters deep, Chinese earthenware and coins.

Excavated moat

▲ Excavated earthenware

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Kurume History Walks / No.15 Castles and Mansions

5.

Remains of Arakimura Mansion (Araki, Arakimachi)
It is said to be a mansion of the Kondo clan. In theliterature of the Kamakura period (1185-1333), the “Araki”
clan appeared, but with the passage of time, the namebecame the “Kondo”. It is not known what the reason was.
There are the documents, which indicated that these twoclans were the same such as the genealogical chart and their
Ex cavat e d e ar t h e n war eterrain.

As a result of the excavation in 1987, the earthenware were discovered, while the remains of the mansion
were not discovered.
6.

Remains of Shirakuchi-Nakamura Mansion (Shirakuchi, Arakimachi)

Front of Camp

The description of Kazusada’s book is as follows:Black Gate

Mountain Camp
Spare Mansion
Suburban Mansion

We s t M a n s i o n
East Mansion“In the south of the river, people said that there were theremains of the Ichiki clan. The land measures 2,000 square meters,
surrounded by moats on three sides. Some areas are calledKuromon (black gate), Baba (riding ground), Kuraato (remainsof a storehouse). The period is unknown. In this area, theInside Fence
Small Mountinhabitants' first name is Ichiki.”

Administrative units and its names around the remains

From this, we guess that a person of Ichiki, military commander, had his residence and extended hisinfluence around there. Today there are still some families called Ichiki on the south of the Kodaraki River.
Closing Remark
Kazusada’s books are precious documents to know the ancient castles and mansions, and to hand down thetrace of people’s grief in a scene of numerous battles. Other unknown castles and mansions, which were notwritten in Kazusada’s books, should have existed.
Throughout human history, it is quite recently that humans came to need large-scale defense facilities toprotect themselves from the enemy’s attack. May the time come when we don’t need any defense facilities in
our life!

Cultural Properties Protection Department of Kurume
Address: 15-3 Jonan Kurume Fukuoka Japan 830-8520
Tel: 0942-30-9225
Date of publication: March 31st, 2002 / Translated in July 20204
Kurume History Walks / No.15 Castles and Mansions