Kubota Castle 2.07

Kubota Castle is a Japanese castle in the city Akita, Akita Prefecture, Japan. Throughout the Edo period, Kubota Castle was home to the Satake clan, daimyō of Kubota Domain, rulers of northern Dewa Province. The castle was also known as "Yadome-jō" or "Kuzune-jō". In the official documents of the Tokugawa shogunate, the castle was called "Akita-jō", although this name is now more commonly used to refer to the Nara period fortified settlement of Akita Castle which was nearby.SituationKubota Castle is a hirayama-style Japanese castle, built on a 40m hill on the left bank of the Nibetsu River, a tributary of the Omono River, incorporating the river and adjacent wetlands into its defenses. The main bailey was protected by a system of wet moats, earthenworks and eight yagura watchtowers; however, the castle made very little use of stone walls, which were not common in Hitachi Province, the previous homeland of the Satake clan. The castle also never had an imposing main keep, possibly to prevent attracting unwelcome suspicion from the Tokugawa shogunate.