is a

castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

in Nagaokakyō,

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

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 ...

History

This castle was constructed in 1339 by Hosokawa Yoriharu, a major

samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

commander under

Ashikaga Takauji also known as Minamoto no Takauji was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Ashikaga shogunate."Ashikaga Takauji" in ''Encyclopædia Britannica, The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th edn., 1992, Vol. ...

, the founder of the Ashikaga shogunate. The area around the castle is a strategic foothold to defend Kyoto, the capital of Japan at that time, from western threats. During the

Ōnin War The , also known as the Upheaval of Ōnin and Ōnin-Bunmei war, was a civil war that lasted from 1467 to 1477, during the Muromachi period in Japan. ''Ōnin'' refers to the Japanese era name, Japanese era during which the war started; the war ende ...

, this castle was used as a castle of the western alliance and became occupied by Iwanari Tomomichi, a

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and no ...

of the Miyoshi clan, during the

Sengoku period The was the period in History of Japan, Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as th ...

. The castle fell to

Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese ''daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period, Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods. He was the and regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. He is sometimes referred as the "Demon Daimyō" and "Demo ...

in 1568, and was given to Hosokawa Fujitaka, who occupied it until 1579. At the battle of Yamazaki between

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

and

Akechi Mitsuhide , first called Jūbei from his clan and later from his title, was a Japanese ''samurai'' general of the Sengoku period. Mitsuhide was originally a bodyguard of the last Ashikaga shogunate, Ashikaga ''shōgun'' Ashikaga Yoshiaki and later, one of ...

, following Mitsuhide's killing of Nobunaga, this castle's garrison collapsed, forcing Mitsuhide to flee to his death.

Access

* Nagaokakyo Station of Tokaido Main Line

Gallery

Syouryuuj12.jpg, The yagura and a moat. Syouryuuj17.jpg, fence and moat Syouryuuj18.jpg, Replica turret and remains of tiger's mouth Syouryuuj2.jpg, Parking lot at Shoryuji Castle Park Syouryuuj21.jpg, Well ruins Syouryuuj22.jpg, The estimated castle grounds of Shoryuji Castle Syouryuuj4.jpg, Stone marker at Shoryuji Castle Park Syouryuuj5.jpg, Excavated artifacts from Shoryuji Castle Syouryuuj6.jpg, Excavated coins from Shoryuji Castle Syouryuuj7.jpg, Excavated artifacts from Shoryuji Castle Syouryuuj19.jpg, Earthen wall of Shōryūji Castle

References

Official Homepage of Nagaoka Tourist Bureau Castles in Kyoto Prefecture Former castles in Japan Ruined castles in Japan Miyoshi clan Akechi clan {{japan-hist-stub