was a mountain

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

in the former Iwashiro (now

Nihonmatsu is a city in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. , the city has an estimated population of 54,013 in 20,179 households, and a population density of 160 persons per km2. The total area of the city was . The Adachi neighborhood of Nihonmatsu was the bir ...

Fukushima Prefecture Fukushima Prefecture (; ja, 福島県, Fukushima-ken, ) is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Fukushima Prefecture has a population of 1,810,286 () and has a geographic area of . Fukushima Prefecture borders Miya ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. The ruins of the inner tower are now part of a historical park.

Date Masamune was a regional ruler of Japan's Azuchi–Momoyama period through early Edo period. Heir to a long line of powerful ''daimyō'' in the Tōhoku region, he went on to found the modern-day city of Sendai. An outstanding tactician, he was made all ...

spent one year in the castle.

History

The Ishibashi clan ruled over the Shiomatsu region where this castle is located during the

Muromachi period The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by t ...

Ashikaga shogunate The , also known as the , was the feudal military government of Japan during the Muromachi period from 1336 to 1573.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Muromachi-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 669. The Ashikaga shogunate was establ ...

. The castle was controlled by the Ōuchi clan, who were hereditary retainers of the Ishibashi. In 1568, Ōuchi Yoshitsuna overthrew his overlord, Ishibashi Naoyoshi, and declared the area to be independent. In 1584 when

took control of the Date clan,

Ōuchi Sadatsuna was a Japanese samurai and military commander of the Sengoku period. He was the lord of the Obama Castle. Sadatsuna belonged under the command of Tamura Kiyoaki. But Sadatsuna switched from the Tamura clan to the Ashina clan and he became inde ...

, pledged fealty, but in the following year, betrayed the Date and joined the Ashina clan instead. This served as a pretext for Date Masamune to invade Shiomatsu and the Date clan soon took control of Otemori Castle, one of the satellite castles of Obama. In 1586, Ōuchi Sadatsuna fled to the Ashina territories and Masamune entered Obama Castle without battle. Later,

used the castle as a base for attacking the

Hatakeyama clan The was a Japanese samurai clan. Originally a branch of the Taira clan and descended from Taira no Takamochi, they fell victim to political intrigue in 1205, when Hatakeyama Shigeyasu, first, and his father Shigetada later were killed in battle ...

, and stayed in this castle until August 1586. After a while, Sadatsuna surrendered to Masamune and became one of his retainers. In 1591,

Gamō Ujisato or Gamō Yasuhide was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the Sengoku and Azuchi–Momoyama periods. He was heir and son of Gamō Katahide, lord of Hino Castle in Ōmi Province, he later held Matsusaka (Ise Province) and finally Aizuwakamatsu Castle in M ...

took control of Shiomatsu, and assigned Gamō Chūzaemon as castellan and lord of a 25,000 ''

koku The is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. 1 koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about . It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1000 gō. One ''gō'' is the volume of the "rice cup", the plastic measuring cup that is supplied ...

'' domain. The surviving stone wall at the present-day ruins of the main castle is from this time. The Gamō were subsequently displaced by the

Uesugi clan The is a Japanese samurai clan which was at its peak one of the most powerful during the Muromachi and Sengoku periods (14th to 17th centuries). Appert, Georges. (1888) ''Ancien Japon,'' p. 79./ref> At its height, the clan had three main branch ...

during which time Yamaura Kagekuni became castellan. In 1627, the castle was abandoned.Website on Iwashiro-Obama castle
/ref>

Miyamori Castle

south of Obama Castle is the ruins of Miyamori Castle. It was thought that the two castles Miyamori and Obama would protect each other geographically. Masamune's father

Date Terumune was a Japanese samurai clan leader of the Sengoku period. Turnbull, Stephen. (2012) ''Samurai Commanders: 1577-1638,'' Vol, 2, p. 52 He had close relationship with Oda Nobunaga, one of the leading figures of the period. Terumune was the father o ...

entered Miyamori Castle shortly after Masamune entered Obama. It was at this castle that Terumune was abducted by

Hatakeyama Yoshitsugu or Hatakeyama Yoshitsugu was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the Sengoku period, who was the 14th head of the Nihonmatsu clan (a branch of the Hatakeyama clan) of Mutsu. In 1568, Yoshitsugu was attacked by Date Terumune, the father of the famous Da ...

. Now, there stands a

Shinto Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintois ...

shrine on top of the ruins.

References

{{reflist Archaeological sites in Japan Castles in Fukushima Prefecture Former castles in Japan Ruined castles in Japan Nihonmatsu, Fukushima Mutsu Province Date clan Muromachi period