Yokote Park urban park on the former Yokote Castle site

Yokote Park (横手公園) sits on ground that once held the main bailey of Yokote Castle and is an established municipal, or “comprehensive”, city park in Yokote City, Akita Prefecture. Its layout traces back to a Meiji-era commission: the park was designed by the noted Meiji landscape architect Nagaoka Anpei and contains a replica castle keep that functions as a local history museum and an observation platform with wide views over the Yokote Basin and nearby mountain ranges.

How Yokote Park compares with Senshu Park

Nagaoka Anpei worked on park designs in Akita Prefecture more than once. In 1897 he produced the plan for Senshu Park at the Kubota Castle site in Akita City; Yokote Park followed in 1902 as the designer’s plan for the castle ruins in Yokote. The two parks share the same origin in late-19th-century park policy and the practice of converting former castle grounds into public parkland. Yokote Park occupies a castle-site hill that residents commonly call “Oshiroyama” (castle mountain), and its features reflect a combination of historic monuments, commemorative sculpture, planted avenues and recreational facilities developed across the 20th century.

History: castle grounds, Meiji design and 20th-century remaking

The conversion of former fortifications into public parks traces to a national Meiji proclamation of 1873 that promoted park creation. Akita Prefecture moved in the 1890s to develop parks and engaged Nagaoka for several designs; Yokote Park was designed in 1902 and the castle ruins were formally transferred to Yokote Town in 1908 to serve as parkland. A major park redevelopment occurred in 1930. From the 1960s Yokote city began a concentrated programme of improvements: the city placed park management with Hata Gisaburo, who oversaw path work and plantings such as cherry trees and azaleas; a bridge over Ushinuma (Horai Bridge) was added in 1961; and in November 1965 the mock tenshu (replica keep) was completed on the second-baily site. Other additions in the 1960s and 1970s included a Peace Kannon, a rose garden and display pieces; a D51 locomotive was unveiled as an exhibit in 1973. On 15 February 2007 Yokote Park was named to the list of Japan’s 100 Historical Parks.

Main attractions: the mock keep, shrines and monuments

The park’s mock tenshu occupies the second-baily of the former Yokote Castle and was completed in November 1965; it was built as a reinforced-concrete structure with a recorded construction cost of 3,600万円. The facility combines a local history (folk) museum and an observation deck, and the observation level provides views that include Mount Chokai and the surrounding Yokote Basin.

On the park grounds is Akita Shrine, a branch enshrining Satake Yoshinobu established in 1879 by splitting the Hachiman Akita Shrine in Senshu Park; the shrine was built using material from the old Yokote Castle and its pillars retain bullet marks from the Boshin War era. The shrine precinct also contains a stone monument to the samurai Senao Kanetada. A separate historic feature is the grave marker of Honda Masazumi (often referred to with his official title Uenosuke), who was exiled to Yokote after an incident at Utsunomiya Castle and died locally; his memorial marker stands in the park.

The Peace Kannon was begun on 30 June 1965 and completed on 15 November 1965 as a memorial for the war dead and a symbol of peace. Other small landscape features include a rose garden installed in the mid-1960s and the park’s red-soil plaza completed in 1989. A fountain once stood on the Musha-damari site; it was later removed and the area converted to parking.

Sports, displays and the former ski area

Yokote Park has hosted sporting facilities and displays across the postwar decades. An athletic ground developed as a municipal ballpark opened in 1954 after a labour-intensive construction begun as an unemployment-relief project; the work reportedly mobilised some 120,000 people and the venue’s name (Yokote City Municipal Stadium) was chosen by public submission. Night lighting for the ballpark was installed in 1979.

A ski area operated on park slopes from circa the 1930s (the first prefectural south skiing tournament at the site was held in 1933) and was expanded substantially in the 1960s: the skiing area grew from 3.5 hectares to 16 hectares, the existing 120-metre rope tow remained and a 520-metre single chairlift was installed. The city included the ski area in a 2016 property-management plan that targeted abolition by 2021; following heavy rain in 2017 that caused slope collapse, the ski facility was closed in 2018.

A preserved D51 locomotive (No. 270) was unveiled in the park on 21 October 1973 and remains one of the fixed exhibits recorded in park history.

Events and seasonal highlights

Yokote Park is the setting for a spring cherry-tree event, the Yokote Cherry Festival, traditionally held from late April into early May. The park is also woven into the city’s winter calendar during the Yokote Snow Festival and Kamakura events, which are fixed to dates in mid-February. The park’s cherry trees and azaleas—part of the plantings undertaken during the 1960s improvements—are part of the park’s seasonal character.

Access and surroundings

By rail the park is reachable from JR East services: both the Ōu Main Line and the Kitakami Line serve Yokote Station, from which the park is approximately a 25-minute walk. By car the park is accessed from the E46 Akita Expressway and the E13 Tōhoku-Chūō Expressway via Yokote Interchange (about 15 minutes), or from the E46 Akita Expressway via the Yokote North SIC (about 20 minutes).

Nearby points of interest recorded alongside the park include the Mizuho no Sato Road, Akita Prefectural Yokote Jōnan High School, the Yokote summary court, the Ishizaka Yojiro Literature Memorial Museum and the former Nisshinkan school site.

FAQ

Where is Yokote Park located?

It is an urban park in Yokote City, Akita Prefecture, on the site of the former Yokote Castle main bailey.

Who designed Yokote Park and when?

The park was designed by Meiji-era landscape architect Nagaoka Anpei in 1902.

What is the mock tenshu and when was it built?

The mock tenshu is a reinforced-concrete replica castle keep completed in November 1965 on the castle's second bailey; it houses a local history museum and an observation deck.

How do you reach the park from the nearest station?

From JR East Ōu Main Line and Kitakami Line Yokote Station the park is about a 25-minute walk.