was a

Sengoku period The was a period in History of Japan, Japanese history of near-constant civil war and social upheaval from 1467 to 1615. The Sengoku period was initiated by the Ōnin War in 1467 which collapsed the Feudalism, feudal system of Japan under the ...

'' yamajiro'' located in Kai Province (present day

Yamanashi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Yamanashi Prefecture has a population of 817,192 (1 January 2019) and has a geographic area of 4,465 km2 (1,724 sq mi). Yamanashi Prefecture borders Saitama Prefecture to the no ...

), constructed in the 1520s by the Takeda clan. Since 1991, the ruins have been protected as a National Historic Site since 1938. The castle is also known as the

Background

The Takeda clan was a cadet branch of the Minamoto clan, and gradually gained control over Kai Province from the late

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japanese. ...

from their bases at

Hakusan Castle was a Heian period ''yamashiro''-style Japanese castle located in the Kamiyamamachi neighborhood of the city of Nirasaki, Yamanashi prefecture. It was the primary fortress of the warlord Takeda Nobuyoshi, the ancestor of the Takeda clan. The ...

and Yato Castle. From the

Kamakura period The is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the Genpei War, which saw the struggle bet ...

to the

, they were the ''

shugo , commonly translated as “(military) governor,” “protector,” or “constable,” was a title given to certain officials in feudal Japan. They were each appointed by the ''shōgun'' to oversee one or more of the provinces of Japan. The pos ...

'' of Kai Province, and Takeda Nobutora (1493-1573) selected a location near the center of the province to build his fortified residence and '' jōkamachi'' in 1519. This was the ''Tsutsujigasaki Yakata'' in what is now the city of Kōfu. Although a strongly-fortified manor house, its primary defenses were moats, and it was considered unsuitable to withstanding a siege. Nobutora therefore fortified a nearby mountain, Yōgaiyama, as a supporting castle and final redoubt with wooden rampartss and earthenworks defenses and built a signal tower on its summit.

Description

Yōgaiyama Castle occupies a narrow ridge, and consists of 20 terraces cut into the hillside. The route does not climb directly between terraces, but wanders back-and-forth, so as to expose any enemy to attack by defenders in the terrace above. The inner bailey is a rectangular area 80 x 30 meters at the highest point of the mountain, and was surrounded by clay walls. The enclosure has gates on its eastern and western sides. The total length of the castle is over 500 meters.

History

On 16 October 1521, Takeda Nobutora defeated the Imagawa at the Battle of Iidagawara. Nobutora faced an invasion of a 15,000-strong army from neighboring

Suruga Province was an old province in the area that is today the central part of Shizuoka Prefecture. Suruga bordered on Izu, Kai, Sagami, Shinano, and Tōtōmi provinces; and was bordered by the Pacific Ocean through Suruga Bay to the south. Its abbrevia ...

led by Imagawa clan general

Fukushima Masanari may refer to: Japan * Fukushima Prefecture, Japanese prefecture ** Fukushima, Fukushima, capital city of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan ***Fukushima University, national university in Japan ***Fukushima Station (Fukushima) in Fukushima, Fukushim ...

in support of the rebellion of the Ōi clan against Takeda rule. Nobutora sent his wife, the daughter of Ōi Nobusato, to the Yōgaiyama Castle for safekeeping. She gave birth to a son the day before Nobutora defeated the invasion, and in celebration of the event, Nobutora named their son, the future

Takeda Shingen , of Kai Province, was a pre-eminent ''daimyō'' in feudal Japan. Known as the "Tiger of Kai", he was one of the most powerful daimyō with exceptional military prestige in the late stage of the Sengoku period. Shingen was a warlord of great ...

, “Katsuchiyo”. In 1576, Takeda Katsuyori ordered that the fortifications be renovated on a large scale. After the fall of the Takeda clan, the castle was controlled by a succession of retainers of

Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fellow ...

, followed by

Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations that Changed the Cour ...

, one of whom,

Katō Mitsuyasu was a retainer under the Toyotomi clan during the late Sengoku period of feudal Japan. Residing within Mino Province during his early life, Mitsuyasu took up arms in support of the Saitō clan and its leader, Saitō Dōsan. When Saitō Tatsuoki ...

, made some further modifications to the defenses. However, after the

Battle of Sekigahara The Battle of Sekigahara (Shinjitai: ; Kyūjitai: , Hepburn romanization: ''Sekigahara no Tatakai'') was a decisive battle on October 21, 1600 (Keichō 5, 15th day of the 9th month) in what is now Gifu prefecture, Japan, at the end of ...

in 1600, the castle was abandoned along with the Tsutsujigasaki Castle in favor of the new

Kōfu Castle was a Japanese castle located in the city of Kōfu, Yamanashi Prefecture, in the Chubu region of Japan. The site has been protected as a National Historic Site since 2019. The castle is also known as Maizuru Castle, and the present-day surroundi ...

. At present, all that remains of the castle are some foundation stones and remnants of earthenworks of the

motte-and-bailey A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively easy to ...

structures. The castle was listed as one of the Continued Top 100 Japanese Castles in 2017. In the southeastern direction from Yōgaiyama Castle, there is a branch castle ruin called Kumajō, which supplements the southern defense of Yōgaiyama Castle, and it is included in the National Historic Site designation. The Yōgaiyama Castle ruins can be reached by bus from

Kōfu Station is the main railway station in the city of Kōfu, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. It is managed by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). Lines Kōfu Station is served by the JR East Chūō Main Line and is 134.1 kilometers from the starting poi ...

on the

JR East The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and is the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are ...

Chūō Main Line The , commonly called the Chūō Line, is one of the major trunk railway lines in Japan. It connects Tokyo and Nagoya, although it is the slowest direct railway connection between the two cities; the coastal Tōkaidō Main Line is slightly faste ...

References

Bibliography

* *Inoue Munekazu. ''Nihon no Meijo''. Yuzankaku publishing (1992).

External links