Tsuruga Castle (Aizu-Wakamatsu Castle)

Tsuruga Castle stands in the centre of Aizuwakamatsu, in the Aizu Basin of western Fukushima. The site was first fortified in 1384 by the Ashina clan as Kurokawa Castle. In 1593 the Christian daimyo Gamō Ujisato, placed here by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, built a seven-storey keep, named the castle Tsuruga-jō ('crane castle') and gave the town the name Wakamatsu. After an earthquake in 1611, the Katō clan rebuilt the keep with five storeys.

From 1643 the castle belonged to the Aizu Matsudaira, a branch of the Tokugawa family, who remained loyal to the shogunate until its end. In the Boshin War of 1868 the forces of the new government besieged the castle for about a month; heavily bombarded, it surrendered, and the domain's defeat became one of the most poignant episodes of the Meiji Restoration.

The damaged buildings were demolished in 1874, leaving the stone walls and moats. In 1965 the keep was reconstructed in reinforced concrete following old photographs, and in 2011 its roof was re-covered with red glazed tiles, the frost-resistant tiles used in the Edo period. Inside is a museum of the castle and the history of Aizu; the top floor looks out over the basin to Mount Bandai.

Ashina Naomori built the first castle on the site in 1384. After the Ashina were defeated by Date Masamune in 1589, Hideyoshi transferred Aizu to Gamō Ujisato, who rebuilt the castle and town. The Katō held Aizu from 1627, and Hoshina Masayuki, half-brother of the third shogun, founded the Aizu Matsudaira line in 1643.

In the 1860s Matsudaira Katamori served as military governor of Kyoto for the shogunate, making Aizu a principal target of the new government in 1868. During the fighting, a unit of teenage samurai, the Byakkotai, retreated to Iimoriyama hill; seeing smoke over the town, some of them believed the castle had fallen and took their own lives. The castle surrendered in November 1868. It was demolished in 1874 and the site became a Historic Site in 1934.

Aizu's loyalty to the shogunate and the tragedy of 1868 are central to the region's identity. The story of the Byakkotai and of the women of Aizu, such as Nakano Takeko and Yamamoto Yaeko, who fought in defence of the castle, is retold in museums, dramas and school trips. The Aizu Autumn Festival in September features a costumed procession of the domain's lords and warriors through the town.

The castle park is also known for its cherry trees, which bloom around the red-roofed keep in April, and for illuminations in winter when snow covers the walls. The values of the Aizu domain school, the Nisshinkan, remain part of local education and civic culture.