《91》Early Modern Hakata and Twin Cities (Part 2)...The Formation of Fukuoka Castle and Castle Town (Second Half)
- The second is to be fully prepared for emergencies. There were 47 turrets in the castle, all of which were stocked with large quantities of food and weapons at all times. In the "Tamon turret," which still remains today, all the woven bamboos were used as arrows for bows in case of emergency, and the dried bracken tied to the bamboos was used as food.
-The third is a feature of the entire castle town. The third feature is that the entire castle town is characterized by its east and west rivers (the Hii River to the west of the Ohori and the Naka River to the east) that flow through the castle town as outer moats, so that the entire town can be seen as a vast castle, on which a defense line was built. Crossing the Nishinakajima Bridge over the Naka River to the east, there is the Masugatamon (the castle's main gate), and the area from this point onward was called Fukuoka-bu.
- Incidentally, the western side of this area is called Hakata-bu, where the streets of Hakata used to be. Surprisingly, many temples were placed on the boundaries of the entire castle town, including this Hakata section, to create a double line of defense. There are many temples in Fukuoka City, and the number of temples is said to be second only to Kyoto. Moreover, their locations were concentrated along the river and the sea at that time. Temples were positioned as defense bases. I admire the wisdom of the warlords of ancient times. /
近世博多と双子都市（その２）…福岡城と城下町の形成（後半）
- その二つは、有事に対する万全の備えです。城内に配置した櫓は47箇所もあり、全ての櫓には常に食料と武器が大量に備蓄されていました。今も残る「多聞櫓」には、有事の際には編んでいる竹が全て弓の矢になり、それらを結んでいる干しワラビは食料になるといった工夫が残されていました。
- その三つは、城下町全体の特徴です。城下町を流れる東西の川（大濠の西にある樋井川と東は那珂川）を外堀として、いわば町全体を広大な城に見立てて防衛ラインを構築していることです。東の那珂川に架かる西中島橋を渡るとそこには枡形門（城下の大手門）があり、これから先は福岡部といいました。
- ちなみにその西側は博多部といい、かつての博多の街並みが広がっていました。驚くことには、この博多部を含めた城下町全体の境界に多くの寺を配置して、二重の防衛ラインを構築していたことです。福岡市内にはお寺がたくさんあり、その数は京都に次いで多いといいます。しかもその場所は当時の川沿い、海沿いに集中していました。お寺が防衛拠点と位置付けられていたのです。いにしえの武将たちの知恵には敬服しますね。