Morioka Castle, Japanese castle ruins in Morioka, Japan

Morioka Castle is a castle ruin in Morioka, Japan, set on a hill where two rivers meet. Massive granite walls and foundations mark the grounds and show the original construction of the fortress.

Nanbu Nobunao moved his seat south from Sannohe Castle and had the site prepared from 1592; his son Toshinao directed the construction from 1598, and the castle was completed in 1633 under the third lord Shigenao. The three-story keep burned down in 1634 and was never rebuilt, a three-story yagura taking its place. The castle remained the Nanbu clan's seat until the Meiji Restoration, and its buildings were dismantled in the early Meiji period.

The park holds a stone monument inscribed with Takuboku Ishikawa's tanka beginning "Kozukata no oshiro no kusa ni nekorobite", written about lying on the grass of the old castle at fifteen. A separate monument commemorates Kenji Miyazawa, who spent his student years in Morioka. The castle's former name, Kozukata, survives in Ishikawa's verse.

The grounds are about a 15-minute walk from JR Morioka Station and can also be reached by bus. Paths run across several levels, which is something to keep in mind when walking through the site.

The three-story tower that served as the keep burned down in 1634, a year after the castle was completed, and was never rebuilt. The stone pedestal of a 1908 equestrian statue of Nanbu Toshiyoshi, the 42nd head of the Nanbu family killed in the Russo-Japanese War, stands in the inner bailey; the bronze was melted down in 1944.