Abstract
Most of the sites of castles in Japan are now public parks. However, the timing and process of their conversion into parks differed from city to city. This study looks at the site of Akita (Kubota) Castle, showing how it was made into a park after the completion of the initial design and revised designs. Nagaoka Yasuhei created a design for the site in 1896 that was later revised three times. The 1896 design included Shokonsha and the Akita Jinja shrine, while making use of the ruins of the castle. Over the next two years the prefecture created a park according to this design, increasing the budget several times to accomplish this. Additional work was carried out over the next two years, again with extra funding. Revised designs in 1902 and 1907 added partial landscaping and moved Akita Jinja out of the park. After this the prefecture made no more prominent changes. A revised design of 1911 was intended to expand the park and dispose of the remaining castle ruins. The prefecture immediately budgeted funds for the new work and actively promoted the completion of the park.
