was an ancient castle (also known as a located in what is now the Kusakabe neighborhood of Higashi-ku of the city of

Okayama is the prefectural capital, capital Cities of Japan, city of Okayama Prefecture in the Chūgoku region of Japan. The Okayama metropolitan area, centered around the city, has the largest urban employment zone in the Chugoku region of western J ...

Okayama Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Okayama Prefecture has a population of 1,826,059 (1 February 2025) and has a geographic area of 7,114 Square kilometre, km2 (2,746 sq mi). Okayama Prefecture ...

, in the

San'yō region The San'yō Region (山陽地方 ''San'yō-chihō'') is an area in the south of Honshū, the main island of Japan. It consists of the southern part of the Chūgoku region, facing the Seto Inland Sea. The name ''San'yō'' means "southern, sunny ( ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. Its ruins have been protected as a National Historic Site since 2005.

History

After the defeat of the combined

Baekje Baekje or Paekche (; ) was a Korean kingdom located in southwestern Korea from 18 BCE to 660 CE. It was one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, together with Goguryeo and Silla. While the three kingdoms were in separate existence, Baekje had the h ...

and Yamato Japan forces, at the hands of the

Silla Silla (; Old Korean: wikt:徐羅伐#Old Korean, 徐羅伐, Yale romanization of Korean, Yale: Syerapel, Revised Romanization of Korean, RR: ''Seorabeol''; International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA: ) was a Korean kingdom that existed between ...

and

Tang China The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...

alliance at the

Battle of Hakusukinoe The Battle of Baekgang () or Battle of Baekgang-gu, also known as the Battle of Hakusukinoe () in Japan, and as the Battle of Baijiangkou ( zh, c=白江口之战, p=Bāijiāngkǒu Zhīzhàn, t=白江口之戰) in China, was a battle between Baek ...

in 663, the Yamato court feared an invasion from either or both Tang or Silla. In response, they built a huge network of shore fortifications throughout the rest of the 600s, often with the assistance of Baekje engineers, generals and artisans. Unaware of the outbreak of the Silla-Tang War (670–676), the Japanese would continue to build fortifications until 701, after finding out that Silla was no longer friendly with Tang. The fortifications encompass the summits of Mount Omawari and Mount Komawari, a mountain massif with an elevation of 198.8 meters northeast of the center of Okayama City. There is no mention of this fortification in historical documentation, so its actual name and any details of its history are unknown. The ruins were discovered in a survey in 1973, and as a result of

archaeological excavation In archaeology, excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains. An excavation site or "dig" is the area being studied. These locations range from one to several areas at a time during a project and can be condu ...

s from 1984 to 1988 by the Okayama City Board of Education, the total length of the fortification was found to be 3.2 kilometers. Rows of locally quarried

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

stones were covered with rammed earth embankments, with a width of between five and ten meters and a height of around two meters. Water gates were built in three locations where the castle walls crossed a valley. No remains of gates or of any buildings within the enclosure have been discovered, but they are presumed to exist on the flat land at the summit of Mount Komawari since the summit of Mount Komawari is the highest point within the enclosed area, Some historians speculate that a beacon platform was installed. In terms of location, the fortification was in a position to protect the

provincial capital A capital city, or just capital, is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state, province, department, or other subnational division, usually as its seat of the government. A capital is typically a city that physically encomp ...

Bizen Province was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan in the area that is eastern Okayama Prefecture in the Chūgoku region of western Japan.Louis-Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Mimasaka no Kuni''" in . Bizen bordered Bitchū Province, ...

and overlooked the strategic

San'yōdō is a Japanese geographical term. It means both an ancient division of the country and the main road running through it. The San'yōdō corresponds for the most part with the modern conception of the San'yō region. This name derives from the i ...

highway. The fortification is estimated to have been contemporary with

Ki Castle was an ancient ''kōgoishi'' type castle located in the city of Sōja, Okayama Prefecture, Japan. Its ruins have been protected as a Historic Sites of Japan, National Historic Site since 1986. Portions of the castle were Reconstruction (arch ...

and to have been constructed in the 7th century. On the eastern hillside of the castle ruins is the Buddhist temple of Jōraku-ji, which is said to have been founded in 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 Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

. The site is about 50 minutes on foot from Seto Station on the

JR West , also referred to as , is one of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies and operates in western Honshu. It has its headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka. It is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is a constituent of the TOPIX Large70 index, ...

San'yō Main Line The is a major railway line owned by JR Group companies in western Japan, connecting Kōbe Station and Moji Station, largely paralleling the coast of the Seto Inland Sea, in other words, the southern coast of western Honshu. The San'yō Shi ...

Gallery

File:Omeguri Komeguri Sanjo-ato, Ichi-no-kido-1-2.jpg, Site of a water gate File:Omeguri Komeguri Sanjo-ato, dorui.jpg, Earthworks Jorakuji (Okayama), keidai-2.jpg, Jōraku-ji with Mount Komeguri in background

References

Literature

* *

External links

{{Commons category, Omeguri-Komegurisan Castle
Okayama CIty homepageOkayama Prefecture hone page
Castles in Okayama Prefecture Historic Sites of Japan Ruined castles in Japan Okayama Bizen Province Asuka period

History

Gallery

See also

References

Literature

External links