Kano Castle Ruins

A Castle Born of Sekigahara

The site has a deeper history than its Tokugawa-era walls suggest. A first fortification on this ground, traditionally called Upper Kanō Castle (Kami-Kanō-jō), is said to have been raised in 1445 by Saitō Toshinaga, the powerful steward of the Mino provincial governor Toki Masayasu. That earlier castle was abandoned in the late 1530s when Saitō Dōsan moved his power base to Inabayama, the mountain stronghold that would later become Gifu Castle.

Following his decisive victory at Sekigahara in 1600, Tokugawa Ieyasu turned his attention to securing the recently subdued Mino region. With Gifu Castle—formerly held by Oda Hidenobu, grandson of Oda Nobunaga—deliberately dismantled, Ieyasu ordered a new castle built on the old Kanō site. Construction proceeded as a tenka-bushin, a national project mobilizing labor and resources from multiple domains. According to local tradition, Ieyasu personally devised the plan of the castle, with the famed warrior Honda Tadakatsu serving as construction commissioner. Materials, including the dismantled tenshu keep of Gifu Castle, were carried down the mountain and reused on the plain below.

Why It Was Designated a National Historic Site

Kanō Castle Ruins was designated a National Historic Site (kuni-shitei shiseki) on October 28, 1983, and the city of Gifu was registered as the managing body the following year. The designation rests on several interlocking grounds.

First, the castle is an exceptionally well-preserved example of an early modern flatland castle. While the second bailey (ninomaru), third bailey (sannomaru), and outer enclosures have long since been absorbed into the urban fabric, the main bailey (honmaru) survives almost intact, ringed by its original stone walls, earthen ramparts, and moat depressions.

Second, the honmaru displays a distinctive convex floor plan. A rectangular projection extending eastward from the front gate—a defensive enclosure known as demasugata—funnels attackers into a confined killing ground before they reach the main gate. This configuration is now recognized as the prototype of what scholars call the "Kanō-style" plan, an early Tokugawa innovation that influenced subsequent castle design across the country.

Third, decades of excavation have continued to enrich the site's historical value. Investigations launched after the 1983 designation have uncovered the foundation stones of the main gate's yagura-mon (turret gate), the surprising remains of hori-shōji (a divider-wall moat structure) along the northern outer moat, and—beneath the Tokugawa-era levels—earthen embankments confirming the existence of the older Sengoku-period fortification recorded in chronicles.

Highlights for the Visitor

Although no superstructures survive above ground, a thoughtful walk around the honmaru reveals more than first appears. The stone walls along the main bailey's southern and western faces are particularly photogenic, with their tightly joined uchikomi-hagi masonry standing several meters high. Information panels installed by the city help visitors locate the gate sites, the demasugata, and the various excavation findings.

The grassy interior of the honmaru, now Kanō Park, is shaded by cherry trees in spring and provides a calm refuge with views toward Mt. Kinka and the silhouette of the reconstructed Gifu Castle keep on its summit—a visual connection between the two great castles of Gifu's history. The earthwork remains of the demasugata projection on the eastern side reward close inspection, especially when read together with the diagrams displayed on site.

Visitors with a deeper interest in the dig results may consult publications such as Excavations at Kanō Castle: Twenty-Two Years of Findings, issued by the Gifu City Board of Education, which records the hori-shōji, palace foundation stones, and other features uncovered since 1989.

The Wider Castle Town: Things to See Nearby

Kanō was more than a castle—it was also Kanō-juku, the 53rd post station along the Nakasendō, the great inland highway linking Edo and Kyoto during the Edo period. Strolling north from the castle ruins toward the old highway, visitors will pass workshops still producing the traditional Japanese umbrellas (wagasa) for which Kanō has long been celebrated. The neighborhood's nickname—"city of the castle, the Nakasendō, and the umbrella"—is well earned.

Roughly 500 meters west of the ruins lies Seitokuji, a Rinzai-school Zen temple holding the graves of the castle's first lord, Okudaira Nobumasa, and his wife Kamehime, daughter of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Their tomb is a quiet, evocative complement to a visit to the castle.

Further afield, the recovered Gifu Castle on Mt. Kinka offers sweeping views over the Nōbi Plain and the meandering Nagara River, while Nagara's traditional cormorant fishing (ukai)—a fishery practiced for more than thirteen centuries—is a memorable summer evening experience along the riverbanks.