General Information
Morioka Castle is a castle with a continuous enclosure built in a plain mount positioned on a granite hill in the central part of Morioka. The Kitakami River on the west and the Nakatsu River on the southeast were its natural outer moats. A secondary enclosure is positioned at the northern part of the inner citadel, and a red painted bridge spans over a moat that divides the two. There's a tertiary enclosure positioned at the northern part of it; a Koshi no kuruwa (腰曲輪?), a Awaji maru (淡路丸?) and a Sakakiyama kuruwa (榊山曲輪?) enclose the inner citadel.
As an act of respect for the shogunate, it has no keep, which was substituted by a three-story turret built on the keep base.
It has an admirable stone wall constructed with white granite, which stands out among the castles of the Tōhoku region, most of those having earthen forts. The building was dismantled during the Meiji period, and the only known remaining constructions in existence nowadays are a storehouse with thick mortar walls, which was reconstructed in the interior part of the castle, and a gate which is said to have been moved from the castle to the Houon Zen shrine within the city. But, it is not sure whether the gate that was reconstructed was the castle gate.
Nowadays, the ruins of the Morioka Castle became the Iwate Park (岩手公園, Iwate Kōen?) (see below for more information about its nickname Morioka Castle Ruins Park (盛岡城跡公園, Morioka-jō ato kōen?)). Within the park, there is a monument inscribed with a poem of Kenji Miyazawa, who hailed from there and utterly loved the castle. Also, a monument in memory of Takuboku Ishikawa can be found, inscribed with one of his poems that is:
| “ | 不来方のお城の草に寝ころびて空に吸はれし十五の心
Kozukata no oshiro no kusa ni nekorobite sora ni suwareshi jū-go no kokoro (English: I laid down on the grass of the Kozukata Castle, absorbed by the sky; my heart of fifteen) |
” |
Read more about this topic: Morioka Castle
Famous quotes containing the words general and/or information:
“We ought, says Kant, to become acquainted with the instrument, before we undertake the work for which it is to be employed; for if the instrument be insufficient, all our trouble will be spent in vain. The plausibility of this suggestion has won for it general assent and admiration.... But the examination can be only carried out by an act of knowledge. To examine this so-called instrument is the same as to know it.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“As information technology restructures the work situation, it abstracts thought from action.”
—Shoshana Zuboff (b. 1951)