二本松城（霞ヶ城）

The Famous Castle of Ōshū: The Pride of Kasumi-ga-jō

Nihonmatsu Castle stands in central Fukushima Prefecture and is affectionately known as Kasumi-ga-jō (Mist Castle). Its name comes from the sight of approximately 2,500 cherry trees blooming across the castle ruins each spring — a sea of flower-mist that gave the castle its poetic name. Today it is one of Japan's 100 Famous Castles and one of Tōhoku's representative castle ruins.

The castle's history extends to the Muromachi period. Around the Ōei era (1394–1428), the Nihonmatsu clan (a branch of the Hatakeyama family) — powerful lords of Ōshū — built a fortress atop Shirahata-yama (White Flag Mountain, 345m). After the Nihonmatsu clan was defeated by Date Masamune in the Battle of Nihonmatsu Castle (1586), the stronghold passed into Date control.

The castle's development as a modern (kinsei) fortification began when the Niwa clan — formerly loyal to Toyotomi — arrived. Niwa Nagashige (1571–1637) had sided with the western forces at Sekigahara (1600), but later submitted to the Tokugawa. In 1622 he was granted 100,700 koku at Nihonmatsu. The Niwa clan remained domain lords through the Meiji Restoration, and Nihonmatsu Castle functioned as a significant fortress of Ōshū throughout the Edo period.

Castle Development Under the Niwa Clan

Niwa Nagashige invested greatly in the castle's layout, completing an extensive compound from the hilltop honmaru and ninomaru down to the sannomaru and main gate (ōte-gomon) at the foot of the hill. The Minowa Gate (Minowa-mon) — restored and standing today — serves as the castle's formal entrance. This impressive masugata-style gate with flanking tamon-yagura (long watchtowers) is a fine example of Edo-period castle architecture.

The view from the honmaru is magnificent: against the backdrop of Mount Adatara, the Nihonmatsu castle town and the Abukuma River spread before you. Mount Adatara — celebrated in poet Takamura Kōtarō's verse collection Chiekoshō as the home of "the real sky" — interweaves mountain, castle, and literature in a landscape emblematic of Nihonmatsu's cultural richness.

The Boshin War and the Nihonmatsu Boys' Corps: Children Who Took Up the Sword

The most moving and most heartbreaking event in Nihonmatsu Castle's history is the Battle of Nihonmatsu during the Boshin War (1868). After Tokugawa Yoshinobu's return of political power (1867), fighting broke out across Japan between the old shogunal forces and the new imperial government army. In Tōhoku, the Ōuetsu Reppan Dōmei (Northern Alliance) was formed, and Nihonmatsu domain joined as a member to face the imperial forces.

In July 1868, Nihonmatsu domain confronted an overwhelmingly superior imperial force with only a small garrison. What moves people most about this battle is the fight of the "Nihonmatsu Shōnentai" (Nihonmatsu Boys' Corps). With nearly all adult men at the front, boys aged 12 to 17 took up swords, spears, and matchlock guns to defend the castle. Among them was Kimura Ryū (age 13), nephew of the domain elder Kimura Jūtarō. The image of these children fighting to the last with swords in hand has been passed down through generations as the Nihonmatsu Shōnentai.

This episode is among the most poignant records of the final era when the Japanese sword was used as a weapon in battle, and one of the purest — if also most tragic — expressions of the bushidō spirit in Japanese modern history. The memory of boys who fought with swords is one of the reasons DATEKATANA presents Nihonmatsu Castle.

The Cherry Castle: Spring at Kasumi-ga-jō

Recovered from the wounds of the Boshin War, Nihonmatsu developed its castle ruins as a public park from the Meiji period onward. Today approximately 2,500 cherry trees fill the park, and at full bloom the entire ruins are wreathed in flower-mist — living up to the "Kasumi-ga-jō" name to this day. The Nihonmatsu Lantern Festival (October), one of Japan's "Three Great Lantern Festivals," is another beloved local tradition demonstrating the city's continuing cultural vitality.

The Minowa Gate and tamon-yagura have been restored, the honmaru stone walls and keep platform are well preserved, and the scale of the Edo-period fortification is clearly readable from the surviving stonework. The Nihonmatsu City Museum to the north of the castle site offers exhibits on the Boshin War, the Shōnentai, and the Niwa clan.

Nihonmatsu Castle and DATEKATANA

DATEKATANA's base in Sendai was the seat of the Date clan — the dominant power of Tōhoku — just north of Nihonmatsu. In the Sengoku period, the fierce struggle between Date Masamune and the Nihonmatsu clan over this castle was a defining episode in Masamune's path to Ōshū supremacy. In the Boshin War, the Sendai domain joined the Northern Alliance alongside Nihonmatsu, sharing a common fate in the last days of the sword era.

The Sendai and Nihonmatsu domains, both Tōhoku warrior houses, shared many historical moments and both lived through the end of the age of swords. The year the Nihonmatsu boys fought with swords — 1868 — was only eight years before the Sword Abolishment Edict of 1876, placing this battle at the very close of the era when swords were wielded as weapons. In that sense, Nihonmatsu Castle holds special weight for DATEKATANA as a castle that speaks the final chapter of Japanese sword history.