Mibu Castle

Mibu Castle (壬生城, Mibu-jō) is a Japanese castle located in Mibu, southern Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. At the end of the Edo period, Mibu Castle was home to a branch of the Torii clan, daimyō of Mibu Domain.

History

The Mibu clan was a branch of the Otsuku clan (小槻氏), a kuge clan claiming descent from the semi-legendary Emperor Suinin. The Mibu rose to prominence in the area which is now part of Mibu and Kanuma from the late Heian period. During the Sengoku period, the Mibu were vassals of the Utsunomiya clan. Mibu Tsunashige built the first Mibu Castle during the Bunmei era (1469-1489). However, the Mibu clan were destroyed along with their overlords by Toyotomi Hideyoshi during the Battle of Odawara in 1590 and their lands were part of domains given subsequently to Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Under the Tokugawa shogunate, Mibu Castle was the center of Mibu Domain, which was awarded to a number of clans in quick succession until it came into the hands of Torii Tadateru in 1712. The Torii clan ruled as daimyō of the 30,000 koku Mibu Domain until the Meiji restoration.

Mibu, Tochigi

Mibu (壬生町, Mibu-machi) is a town located in Shimotsuga District, Tochigi Prefecture, in the northern Kantō region of Japan. As of May 2015, the town had an estimated population of 39,628 and a population density of 649 persons per km². Its total area was 61.06 km².

Geography

Mibu is located in south-central Tochigi Prefecture.

Surrounding municipalities

History

The remains of many burial mounds from the Kofun period can be found in Mibu. During the Edo period, Mibu-shuku was a post station on a branch the Nikkō Kaidō connecting Edo with the shrines at Nikkō, and was also a castle town for Mibu Domain. After the Meiji restoration, Mibu town and the villages of Inaba and Minami-Inukai were created within Shimotsuga District on April 1, 1889 with the creation of the municipalities system. Inaba merged with Mibu on November 3, 1954 followed by Minami-Inukai on July 28, 1955.

Economy

The economy of Mibu is heavily dependent on agriculture.

Castle

A castle (from Latin: castellum) is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble. This is distinct from a palace, which is not fortified; from a fortress, which was not always a residence for nobility; and from a fortified settlement, which was a public defence – though there are many similarities among these types of construction. Usage of the term has varied over time and has been applied to structures as diverse as hill forts and country houses. Over the approximately 900 years that castles were built, they took on a great many forms with many different features, although some, such as curtain walls and arrowslits, were commonplace.

A European innovation, castles originated in the 9th and 10th centuries, after the fall of the Carolingian Empire resulted in its territory being divided among individual lords and princes. These nobles built castles to control the area immediately surrounding them, and were both offensive and defensive structures; they provided a base from which raids could be launched as well as protection from enemies. Although their military origins are often emphasised in castle studies, the structures also served as centres of administration and symbols of power. Urban castles were used to control the local populace and important travel routes, and rural castles were often situated near features that were integral to life in the community, such as mills and fertile land.

Castle (disambiguation)

Castles are fortified residences built in Europe and the Middle East in the Middle Ages.

Castle or Castles may refer to:

Places

Entertainment

The Castle (video game)

The Castle is an MSX game released by ASCII Corporation in 1986. The game is set within a castle containing 100 rooms, most of which contain one or more puzzles. The object of the game is to navigate through the Castle to rescue the Princess. The player can push certain objects throughout the game to accomplish progress. In some rooms, the prince can only advance to the next room by aligning cement blocks, Honey Jars, Candle Cakes, and Elevator Controlling Block. Additionally, the player's progress is blocked by many doors requiring a key of the same color to unlock, and a key is removed from the player's inventory upon use. The prince must be standing on a platform next to the door to be able to unlock it, and cannot simply jump or fall and press against the door. The player can navigate the castle with the help of a map that can be obtained early in the game. The map will provide the player with a matrix of 10x10 rooms and will highlight the room in which the princess is located and the rooms that he had visited. The player must also avoid touching enemies like Knights, Bishops, Wizards, Fire Spirits, Attack Cats and Phantom Flowers.