Kawagoe Castle Honmaru Palace

Kawagoe Castle was built in 1457 by Mochitomo Uesugi of Ougitani, who ordered Michizane Ota and his son Michikan to build the castle.

The main hall of Kawagoe Castle was built in 1848 by Matsudaira Natsunori, the feudal lord of Kawagoe at the time, and the entrance and hall still retain the appearance of those days. In addition, the ruins of the Fujimi-yagura (viewing tower), earthen mounds, and an empty moat tell the story of the past.

The Honmaru Goten of Kawagoe Castle is an irimoya-style building with a gorgeous large gable and a fog screen.

It has a frontage of 19 ken and a depth of 5 ken, with a large entrance and porte-cochere. In addition, a 36-mat hall is separated from the entrance by an itama (wooden floor), and at the rear is a 9-foot corridor enclosed by a saoberi ceiling. The building is 165 tsubo in size. In the past, it had 16 buildings with a total area of 1,025 tsubo.

In the Meiji period (1868-1912), many of the buildings were demolished due to the decree to abolish the castle. Today, only the entrance and hall of the Honmaru Goten and the samurai retainer’s office remain.

The hall of the Honmaru Goten is a valuable structure in Japan, as it exists only in Kawagoe Castle and Kochi Castle.

The entrance and hall were converted into the Iruma Prefectural Office, the Iruma County Public Hall, and the Kawagoe branch factory of the Yodobashi Branch of the Tobacco Sales Bureau.

Later, in 1933, the building became the training hall of the Kawagoe Budo Shoreikai, and was renamed Hatsugan Butokuden.

After the war, it was used as the school building and indoor playground of Kawagoe Municipal Second Junior High School (now Hatsugan Junior High School).

The location of the house is different from the former one.