Hara Castle (原城, Hara-jō?) was a Japanese castle in Hizen Province. During the Shimabara Rebellion (1637–1638), rebellious peasants were besieged there.
As a result of the Shimabara Rebellion in 1637, the Shogunate decided to expel the Portuguese from Japan. The Dutch, meanwhile, gained the trust of the authorities after they bombarded Hara Castle, where the insurgents had taken refuge, and thus gained a monopoly on European trade with Japan.
This article incorporates text from OpenHistory.
Coordinates: 32°38′00″N 130°15′22″E / 32.6333°N 130.256°E / 32.6333; 130.256
Famous quotes containing the word castle:
“If, in looking at the lives of princes, courtiers, men of rank and fashion, we must perforce depict them as idle, profligate, and criminal, we must make allowances for the rich men’s failings, and recollect that we, too, were very likely indolent and voluptuous, had we no motive for work, a mortal’s natural taste for pleasure, and the daily temptation of a large income. What could a great peer, with a great castle and park, and a great fortune, do but be splendid and idle?”
—William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863)