Kita-Juhachiken Turret
The 40-meter-long Kita-Juhachiken Turret was a single-story, hook-shaped wooden turret at the northern corner of the inner compound (honmaru). Dating from the early Edo period (1603–1867), this turret stood on a 20-meter-high stone wall and was connected to the Higashi-Juhachiken Turret on the south and the Goken Turret on the north. The name, meaning “northern 18-ken-long turret”—a ken is an old measurement roughly equivalent to 1.82 meters—is more straightforwardly descriptive than those of the other turrets, which are named after animals of the Chinese zodiac that represent points of the compass. Both the turret and the wall beneath it collapsed in the 2016 earthquake. The parts are now in storage awaiting restoration and reassembly.