Fukuyama Castle is located at a hill in the center of Fukuyama city. Prior to the
Edo Period, this area was a large
tidal flat. The
Sanyōdō highway, which connects the
Kinai region with
Kyushu, ran to the north of the modern city center, and
Tomonoura, a port on the
Seto Inland Sea from the
Heian period, was to the south. The main power center for
Bingo Province was at
Kannabe Castle to the northeast. After the
Battle of Sekigahara in 1600,
Fukushima Masanori was awarded control of both
Aki Province and Bingo Province; however, in 1619, the
Tokugawa shogunate used the pretext that he had made repairs to
Hiroshima Castle without permission to seize a portion of his domain, awarding a 100,000
koku portion of Bingo Province to
Tokugawa Ieyasu's cousin,
Mizuno Katsunari. Katsunari had an outstanding military record and it was expected that he would act as a bulwark on the
Sanyōdō highway against possible rebellion by the powerful
tozama daimyō of western Japan, such as the
Mōri clan. Mizuno found that Kannabe Castle was located in a narrow mountain valley and was inconvenient both to manage his domain and to defend against attack, some received a special exception from the shogunate's "one domain - one castle" rule to build a new castle and
castle town on
reclaimed land. Construction started in 1619 and was completed in 1622. The new Fukuyama Castle occupied a hill with a length of 400 meters and width of 200 meters. The inner bailey occupies the southern half of the hill, and contains a five-story
tenshu at its northern edge. The southern edge was protected by two
yagura turrets. The Fushimi
yagura was a white three-story structure transferred from abolished
Fushimi Castle in
Kyoto. The Tsukumi
yagura has a red handrail balcony. Between these two
yagura is the main gate of the castle, also transferred from Fushimi Castle. The secondary bailey occupied the north half of the hill, and outer bailey surrounded south half of the hill. Fukuyama Castle had seven three-story
yagura and 15 smaller
yagura, and tall stone walls, and was surrounded by water moats, connected by canal to the Seto Inland Sea. The
Mizuno clan was replaced by the
Abe clan was rulers of Fukuyama Domain in 1698 and governed to the
Meiji restoration. Although the various Abe
daimyō played important political roles in the administration of the shogunate, they seldom visited the domain in person. During the
Boshin War, Fukuyama Castle was attacked by the
Chōshū army in January 1868, but the domain defected to the Imperial side and the castle was spared destruction. ==Current situation==