As you walk through Dōgo Park at night, the shape of a hill appears to drift there, far beyond the shadowed trees.
It stretches before you, and this very hill was once the main stronghold of the warriors who ruled the old Iyo Province during the middle ages.
Their citadel lasted for 250 years. Its name was “Yuzuki Castle.” Old records indicate that its name was once written with the character for “tsuki,” or “moon.”
The castle was built by the powerful Kōno Clan, once rulers of Iyo Province. Originally, their stronghold was located not in Dōgo but a bit further north in the seaside region formerly known as Kōno – now the modern-day Hōjō district of Matsuyama City.
The sea was the Kōno Clan’s backyard; their navy was their killer edge. Their fleets sailed during the Gempei War, and fought hard against the Mongol invasions of Japan during the 1200s, helping to solidify the social standing of Iyo’s hardy warriors.
The Kōno Clan eventually moved their seat of power to Dōgo. In the days of Iyo Province, the area of modern-day Matsuyama was just vast wetlands. Dōgo, meanwhile, was a well-known hot spring region since antiquity.
It was an economic epicenter, with a developed townscape filled with people, as well as temples and shrines.
Hot springs, temples, a full town, roads and rivers leading to the ocean – The Kōno Clan decided their new stronghold must be built upon this grand hill.
Thus, during the middle of the 14th century, military commander Kōno Michimori had the clan’s stronghold built on this hill. Excavation surveys reveal that the castle was fortified with the moat and earthen walls in the first half of the 16th century. Yuzuki Castle is classified as a flatland mountain castle, built on the flatlands at the top to make use of the entire hill.
Two moats were eventually dug surrounding the hill; the inner region was reinforced with earthen walls, and the warriors’ residences, storehouses and wells were placed within.
Archeological surveys reveal how this construction style of moats and earthen walls encircling a residential area was ahead of its time; it would be reproduced in later periods by castles all across Japan.
The samurai residence before you was reconstructed according to said surveys. The earthen walls, the layered shingles, the light from torches hanging from the eaves… This residence seems to float in the night.
The memory of those who must have congregated here melds with this scenery. Surely, they must have experienced it, too. Now, this place also has its own tale concerning the name “Isaniwa.”
A certain “Isaniwa Shrine” once stood here, back before Yuzuki Castle was built. It was also known as Yuzuki Hachiman Shrine. It’s also said that the shrine was located in Dōgo Park, in the vicinity of Iwasaki Shrine.
However, when Kōno Michimori built Yuzuki Castle here, Isaniwa Shrine was moved to its current location atop the mountain across from here due to the resulting construction work.
Naturally, this is all hearsay and not necessarily historical fact. Still, this sort of unreliability is one of the many colorful quirks of Dōgo history. The land’s memory sways in the mists of time, its name reaching quietly across the ages to this very day.
That is why one can impose the mystique of the Isaniwa name upon this hill’s serene, umbral visage.
From the Nanboku-chō Period through the Muromachi and the Sengoku periods, the situation around Yuzuki Castle grew more severe.
As the local daimyo grew their military might and engaged in continuous warfare, the Kōno Clan fought hard to protect Iyo Province by any means necessary. Excavation surveys reveal that the castle was fortified with the moat and earthen walls in the first half of the 16th century.
And then, as the Sengoku Period drew near its end, so too did the Kōno Clan’s rule.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi and his army laid siege to Yuzuki Castle. The mission: to conquer Shikoku.
The castle lord at this time was Kōno Michinao– the tenth of his line since the time of Michimori. For about a month he withstood Hideyoshi’s forces, but in the end he opened the gates to them. Thus did the curtain close on 250 years of Kōno Clan rule of Yuzuki Castle.
Thus did the Kōno Clan fade from history. Many lords came after, but they moved their central stronghold to a different place.
They say that when Matsuyama Castle was built during the Edo Period, the stones of Yuzuki Castle walls were carried away, leaving the forlorn hill for the bamboo to reclaim.
This park that you stroll in now, the one we now know as Dōgo Park, bore witness to centuries of violent change across the ages.
Let us follow the path up to the summit. As you ascend, the city lights grow distant as the whooshing winds draw near. An extraordinary sense of aeons passing into shadow, felt only in the night. We do not know if this hill is actually Isaniwa Hill.
Nevertheless, the place you walk now, with its long history of hot springs, spirituality and politics, is most certainly one of the cornerstones of Iyo Province.
At our next spot, we will tell you of how this hill became a bamboo grove, before being reborn as Dōgo Park; of the figure known as Isaniwa Yukiya; and an observatory where the night seems to cover the entire world.
