is the remains of a castle structure in

Shūnan is a city located in east central Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. As of October 1, 2016, the city has an estimated population of 143,959 and a population density of 220 persons per km2. The total area is 656.13 km2. The modern city of Shūna ...

Yamaguchi Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Yamaguchi Prefecture has a population of 1,377,631 (1 February 2018) and has a geographic area of 6,112 Square kilometre, km2 (2,359 Square mile, sq mi). Y ...

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 ...

. Its ruins have been protected as a Prefectural Historic Sites. It is located on a 217 meter mountain. Wakayama castle was built by the Sue clan, one of the most important retainers of the

Ōuchi clan was one of the most powerful and important families in Western Japan during the reign of the Ashikaga shogunate in the 12th to 14th centuries. Their domains, ruled from the castle town of Yamaguchi, comprised six provinces at their height, and ...

and became a home castle of the Sue clan in the Sengoku period.

Sue Harukata was a samurai who served as a senior retainer of the Ōuchi clan in the Sengoku period in Japan. He was the second son of Sue Okifusa, a senior retainer of the Ōuchi clan. His childhood name was Goro, and previously had the name Takafusa (). ...

improved and strengthened the castle before the

Tainei-ji incident The was a coup in September 1551 by Sue Takafusa (later known as Sue Harukata) against Ōuchi Yoshitaka, hegemon ''daimyō'' of western Japan, which ended in the latter's forced suicide in Tainei-ji, a temple in Nagato Province. The coup put an ...

. The castle was attacked by the

Mōri clan The Mōri clan (毛利氏 ''Mōri-shi'') was a Japanese samurai clan descended from Ōe no Hiromoto. Ōe no Hiromoto was descended from the Fujiwara clan. The family's most illustrious member, Mōri Motonari, greatly expanded the clan's power ...

soon after the

Battle of Miyajima The 1555 was the only battle to be fought on the sacred island of Miyajima; the entire island is considered to be a Shinto shrine, and no birth or death is allowed on the island. Extensive purification rituals took place after the battle, to cle ...

, Harukata's son Nagafusa was defeated and he committed seppuku. It is believed the castle was demolished by the Mōri clan after the fall of the castle.

References

{{coord missing, Yamaguchi Prefecture Castles in Yamaguchi Prefecture Historic Sites of Japan Former castles in Japan Ruined castles in Japan Ōuchi clan