Qualla: Kuwana Castle

Kuwana Castle: Introduction

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit by Reggaeman, Public domain. Honda Tadakatsu never lost a battle. Known as one of the Four Heavenly Kings of the Tokugawa, he fought in over a hundred engagements and never received a serious wound. So when Tokugawa Ieyasu needed someone to build a fortress at one of the most strategically important points in Japan, the gateway where the Tokaido highway met Ise Bay, he sent Honda. The castle that rose on the banks of the Kiso River at Kuwana in northern Mie Prefecture was as formidable as the man who designed it: a triangular fortress with a six-story tower, 36 watchtowers, 46 gates, and an entire river serving as its eastern moat. For over two and a half centuries, Kuwana Castle controlled the crossing point where every traveler between Edo and Kyoto had to board a boat, because there were no bridges across the delta. Today only stone foundations and two reconstructed watchtowers remain, but the story of the castle reaches from medieval merchant guilds to the final civil war of samurai Japan.

Read more: Kuwana Castle on Qualla

Image: by Reggaeman | Public domain

Kuwana Castle: A Thousand Houses on the Bay

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Katsushika Hokusai, Public domain. Long before Honda Tadakatsu arrived, Kuwana was already important. During the Heian and Muromachi periods, the port city sat on Ise Bay and was controlled by a powerful guild of merchants. In 1515, the poet Socho described it as a major city with over a thousand houses, temples, ...

Read more: Kuwana Castle on Qualla

Image: Katsushika Hokusai | Public domain

Kuwana Castle: The Warrior's Fortress

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Alexrk2, CC BY-SA 3.0. After the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, Ieyasu transferred Honda Tadakatsu from Otaki Castle in Kazusa Province to Kuwana with orders to build. Honda chose the site of the old Higashi Castle on the riverbank and constructed a fortress engineered for defense at every scale. The ma...

Read more: Kuwana Castle on Qualla

Image: Alexrk2 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Kuwana Castle: Fire, Silence, and Surrender

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Fraxinus2, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1617, the Honda clan was transferred to Himeji Domain, and Kuwana passed to a cadet branch of the Matsudaira clan, who would hold it for the remainder of the Edo period. The castle's grandest chapter ended abruptly in 1701 when fire consumed the tenshu and most of the surround...

Read more: Kuwana Castle on Qualla

Image: Fraxinus2 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Kuwana Castle: What the Stones Remember

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit by Reggaeman, Public domain. In 1928, what remained of the inner bailey and a portion of the second bailey were converted into Kyuka Park, a public green space where fragments of stone walls and moat channels still trace the castle's original footprint. The ruins were designated a Mie Prefectural Historical ...

Read more: Kuwana Castle on Qualla

Image: by Reggaeman | Public domain