Hirosaki Castle is not simply a keep framed by cherry blossoms. It is the surviving heart of a planned castle town in Aomori, where the Tsugaru domain organized authority through moats, gates, walls and roads. The former stronghold is now Hirosaki Park, a public landscape whose spring flowers, summer shade, autumn color and winter snow each reveal a different relationship between the town and its history.
Construction began in 1603 and advanced under Tsugaru Nobuhira from 1609; Hirosaki City marks 1611 as the castle’s completion. The site became the administrative center of the Tsugaru domain, in a region shaped by agriculture, routes and relations with neighboring territories. The original main keep was lost after lightning struck it and a fire followed in 1627. The present three-storey keep dates to 1810. Built on a reduced scale during a period when construction of new keeps was restricted, it is identified by the city as the only surviving Edo-period castle keep in Tohoku.