Ruins of Tomioka Castle (富岡城跡) 富岡城跡
It withstood the rebels' siege in January 1638; the rebuilt turret is a visitor centre.
It was built between 1602 and 1605 by Terasawa Hirotaka, lord of Karatsu, who in 1601 had received Amakusa (42,000 koku, the income in rice) for serving the eastern side at Sekigahara. It stands on a hill joined to the mainland by a sandbar, with the Fukuro-ike pond to the south and Tomoe Bay to the east, which protected it. In the Shimabara-Amakusa rebellion the rebels attacked it on 4 January 1638, after killing the castle warden Miyake Tōbei at Hondo; the commander Harada Iyo held out, and on 10 January the rebels withdrew and moved on to Hara Castle. After the rebellion the Terasawa house lost Amakusa. In 1670 Toda Tadamasa had the honmaru and ninomaru demolished so as not to burden the inhabitants, and the sannomaru (the third enclosure) remained the seat of the shōgun's direct administration until the Meiji Restoration. Between 1994 and 2005 the walls, turret and gate were rebuilt on an old plan; the turret of the honmaru is modelled on the long hall (多聞櫓) that really existed.
Kumamoto
富岡港船客待合所
