芦城公園 Rojou Park

"Komatsu at first glance has little to appeal to a casual tourist, unless you are a big fan of concrete."

This sentence was my first insight into the character of the city I now live in, and I'm not going to lie--it was incredibly disheartening, especially considering all the material I had seen on Kanazawa, Kaga, and the Noto Peninsula.

Luckily, when I got here, I quickly found out that while the main drag of Komatsu is indeed a concrete lover's dream, the back roads were full of traditional machi-ya style houses and even walled-in family compounds. Rice fields abounded and right down the road, there was a traditional Japanese garden-style park free and open to the public.

Little appeal, eh? 

Rojou Park occupies the former outer grounds of Maeda Toshitsune's retirement castle. Maeda Toshitsune was the Lord of the Kaga, Ettchuu, and Noto Provinces--the domain that included present-day Ishikawa and parts of Toyama Prefectures--from 1605 to 1649. The Kaga Domain was historically peaceful and prosperous, second only to the Tokugawa clan in Edo in terms of income. Maeda Toshitsune's rule started just five years after the Battle of Sekigahara and the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate.

Growing up in a time of constant political turmoil made Maeda Toshitsune crafty and more than a little paranoid about Tokugawa clan. His fear of invasion lead him to commission a temple hideout, which you can tour today. Myouryuu-ji (aka Ninja-dera) is a working Buddhist temple that is decked out in traps, including a room to hide a small contingent of guards, a trap-door altar, secret passages, and hidden arrow slots. Legend has it that the temple was connected to Kanazawa Castle by underground passageway, but there's no proof around today.

Where does a prosperous, paranoid feudal lord go to retire? Komatsu, of course! Construction of Komatsu Castle, also called Rojou ("castle in the reeds") helped turn Komatsu into a center of culture and commerce. Tea ceremony, kabuki, and other traditional arts began to flourish. The Maeda family used Komatsu as a secondary castle after Toshitsune's death, keeping the city prosperous and lively.

Alas, Rojou was not meant to last the ages. During the Meiji period, the central government wanted Japan to modernize. A part of this modernization was breaking the power of the old noble families--at least, the ones outside of Tokyo. Noble families could only keep one castle. Relevant authorities chose their family seat in Kanazawa castle, and so the castle in Komatsu was demolished. The grounds were used for the city's first public high school...where I now teach. One lone parapet remains by the tennis courts.

The Maedas were not known for their weeding skills. 

To celebrate the history of the castle and its contributions to the history and culture of Komatsu, the city reconstructed a castle garden based on the design of Kenroku-en in Kanazawa and made it a public park in the 1950s.

Maeda Toshitsune is still an important figure in Komatsu's history. His statue stands on a little hill in Rojou Park and during the city's two biggest festivals, he has his own place among the cute mascots.

The face of a political mastermind. 

The park today is home to a formal teahouse and Komatsu's central library. It's a popular place for walks all year and especially popular for picnics in the spring. The city also has a catch-treat-release program for abandoned cats in the park, and despite signs encouraging locals not to feed them, the strays stay as fat and happy as ever.