Keywords
Architecture
Castles
Lit. "belt compound." A long narrow castle compound. Obiguruwa were often constructed on the top of an earthen embankment to form the outer edge of a moat. In medieval mountain castles *yamajiro 山城, the term was applied to compounds built atop the outer earthen embankments of dry moats, used in the Gohōjō and Takeda schools (Gohōjōryū 後北条流 and Takedaryū 武田流) of military castle construction. Obiguruwa also referred to long narrow compounds on the mountainside below the main compound located on the mountain ridge. In early modern flatland castles *hirajiro 平城, obiguruwa formed narrow connecting corridors flanking the moat.