Goryōkaku

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Goryōkaku
五稜郭
Part of Boshin War
Near Hakodate in Japan
Goryōkaku viewed from Goryōkaku Tower
Governmental hall of the Republic of Ezo
Goryōkaku
Coordinates	41°47′49″N 140°45′25″E / 41.79694°N 140.75694°E / 41.79694; 140.75694
Type	Star fort
Site history
Built	1866
Built by	Takeda Ayasaburō
Battles/wars	Boshin War
19th century map of Goryōkaku

Goryōkaku (五稜郭, lit. 'five-point fort') is a star fort in the Japanese city of Hakodate on the island of Hokkaido.^[1] The fortress was completed in 1866. It was the main headquarters of the short-lived Republic of Ezo.

Goryōkaku was designed in 1855 by Takeda Ayasaburō, a scholar of Dutch. ^[2] He studied the fortified cities of Europe in the early modern period to design a fort that could protect against battles using guns and cannons. It took nearly seven years for the construction.^[3] The fortress was completed in 1866, two years before the collapse of the Tokugawa shogunate. It is shaped like a five-pointed star. This allowed for greater numbers of gun emplacements on its walls than a traditional Japanese fortress, and reduced the number of blind spots where a cannon could not fire.

The fort was built by the Tokugawa shogunate, he ordered Takeda Ayasaburō to design the fort for the purpose of protecting Tsugaru Strait.^[3] It became the capital of the Republic of Ezo, a state that existed only in 1869. It was the site of the last battle of the Boshin War between the Republic and the Empire of Japan. The fighting lasted for a week (June 20–27, 1869).

Today, Goryōkaku is a park declared as a Special Historical Site, being a part of the Hakodate city museum and a citizens' favorite spot for cherry-blossom viewing in spring.

• List of Special Places of Scenic Beauty, Special Historic Sites and Special Natural Monuments
• Benten Daiba, another key fortress of the Republic of Ezo
• Citadel Hill, a similar shaped fortress in Nova Scotia, Canada
• Fort Bourtange, a similarly shaped fortress in the Netherlands
• List of foreign-style castles in Japan
• Palmanova

• Benesch, Oleg and Ran Zwigenberg (2019). Japan's Castles: Citadels of Modernity in War and Peace. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 374. ISBN 9781108481946.
• De Lange, William (2021). An Encyclopedia of Japanese Castles. Groningen: Toyo Press. p. 600. ISBN 978-9492722300.
• Schmorleitz, Morton S. (1974). Castles in Japan. Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Co. p. 144. ISBN 0-8048-1102-4.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Goryokaku.

• Japan Atlas: Goryokaku Fort
• Sightseeing in Hakodate: Goryokaku Area
• Goryokaku Tower