Tsuchiura Castle

Tsuchiura Castle, also known as Turtle Castle, is a historic flatland-style Japanese fortress located in Tsuchiura, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. While folklore attributes its original founding to the Heian period warrior Taira no Masakado, the castle's documented development began in earnest during the Sengoku and early Edo periods. Following the Battle of Sekigahara, Matsudaira Nobuyoshi established the foundations of the surrounding castle town and constructed key gates along the vital Mito Kaidō highway. In 1669, the site came under the long-term control of the Tsuchiya clan, who served as the local daimyō until the Meiji Restoration, with only a brief five-year interruption in their rule.

The physical structure of the castle underwent significant changes after the Meiji Restoration in 1873, when government orders led to the dismantling of most fortifications and the filling of its moats. The central bailey, which once housed the daimyō palace, served as a government office until it was destroyed by fire in 1884. Subsequently, the central and second baileys were donated to the city in 1899 to become Kijo Park, which remains open to the public today. Of the original Edo-period structures, only the Taiko Yagura Mon gate, built in 1656, survives authentically. Two other towers on the grounds are modern reconstructions from the 1990s, with one currently housing the Tsuchiura City Museum, preserving the legacy of this once-strategic stronghold.