Kanō Castle
was a hirajirō-style Japanese castle located in the city of Gifu, Gifu Prefecture, Japan. It was one of the few castles built after the Battle of Sekigahara and establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate and was used as an administrative center of Kanō Domain under the end of the Edo period, but only its ruins, including the base of the tenshu and stone walls, remain today. The ruins were designated National Historic Site in 1983. Structure Kanō Castle is a long and narrow structure, approximately 550 meters north-to-south by 400 meters east-to-west) with a double moat. The main gate of the castle was on the north side, facing the Nakasendō highway. The inner moat completely surrounded the main enclosure, and the outer moat was the Arata River to the east, the Shimizu River to the north, and connecting moats on the west and south. The castle town was located to the east, and the shukuba of Kanō-juku was located on the north. The main enclosure was square, with a protruding outer box. This is one of the characteristics of the early Tokugawa castles, this castle was thus the template for "Kanō-type castles" subsequently built at other locations. The yagura in the