One Saturday last month I was bored, and decided on a whim I would visit a castle. There are plenty of castles in Japan, but I have interest in only originals or ruins, not the recent restorations, and so my options are limited. I’m not sure why, but a castle like Morioka Castle, where only portions of the walls remain, I find far more captivating than something built barely 60 years ago, no matter how magnificent it may look. If an historical site is destroyed, I believe it should be left to rest, and the site not disturbed by modern hands.
I chose to visit the ruins of Nagashino Castle (長篠城), for it is easily accessible by train and nestled in the mountains. The trip was my first on a rural line with unmanned stations. Such stations lack ticket machines and gates found in larger ones… Unless boarding at a station with ticket machines, they’re bought from a member of the railway staff shortly after boarding, and surrendered to them upon departing. The winding track though the mountains offered some nice scenery, and the chattering group of twenty or so middle school students blocking the door became hushed and parted like the Red Sea when I stood up to get off the train. I do believe the incident was what is called a Gaijin Smash. Awesome.
I arrived at Nagashinojou Station about 2:30, and hadn’t eaten since around 9, so I stopped for a late lunch at Tokuya Sushi and had, not sushi, but a big udon meal. There were only two other customers at the time, and they along with the sushi chef took an interest in me, asking the typical questions and making the typical comments I receive here, such as: “Where are you from?” “You’re good at Japanese!” “Why are you in Japan?”. Although not two minutes after I told the sushi chef I wasn’t a college student, he asked if I was on summer break, and the customer next to me bluntly answered on my behalf, “He just told you he isn’t a student!”. Hehe.
I was surprised to learn none of them had heard of Okazaki, despite the fact it’s a city of 350k less than 20 miles away… Just goes to show how isolated rural Japan can be, I suppose.
The tiny Nagashinojou Station (長篠城駅)
Tokuya Sushi (とくやすし)
In 1575, the Battle of Nagashino took place near the castle. It’s been compared to the Battle of the Alamo, and the sites have monuments commemorating each other. The Japanese monument at the Alamo was given by Shigetaka Shiga in 1914, while the corresponding monument at Nagashino is relatively new… I’m guessing 1992, from the inscription.
The monument at Nagashino Castle
… and its English inscription
The oak tree seems to be doing well
Honestly, I intended to write a bit more about the site and include several more pictures… However, the bandwidth at my apartment is throttled to atrociously low speeds if I exceed 15 kilobytes/second upstream, so uploading images is a chore. Also, as I put off completing this entry for some weeks, I’ve forgotten what else I was going to write about! So, I’ll just leave you with a few more images:
A grassy field is all that remains where the castle once stood. Marker indicating site of the keep is near the center
Close-up of the marker
A depiction of the crucifixion of Torii Suneemon (鳥居強右衛門)
