Terao Naka Castle: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 12:57, 22 August 2020

This is the fourth and final castle along the ridge starting from Yamana Castle and nearly the end of my 15km castle hike starting from Yamana Castle. The castle itself is a fairly simple ridgeline castle with small baileys and some trenches and a notable 20m stretch of "dobashi" where the ridge

History

Nitta Yoshisada may have used the site as an encampment in 1180. Yukiyoshi Shinno was supposedly besieged here by Uesugi Norisada in 1397.

From my perspective, it does not look like a particularly good location to build a castle. Possibly the park area at the top of the mountain may have been used as an encampment, but the long narrow ridge with a few small baileys does not look easy to defend and is rather easy for attackers to circumvent and to cut it off from several different sides or angles. If one were somehow caught here at unawares, one might have also built some of these defenses out of necessity,

Field Notes

This is the fourth and final castle along the ridge starting from Yamana Castle and nearly the end of my 15km castle hike starting from Yamana Castle. The castle itself is a fairly simple ridgeline castle with small baileys and some trenches and a notable 20m stretch of "dobashi" where the ridge was cut down to a narrow corridor.

Most explanations for this castle tell you to go to the Kannon Mountain Family Park and take the walking course from the parking lot which will quickly get you to the castle ruins, but you need a car to get there. There are also a few busses from Takasaki Station if the timing works for you. Having come from Terao Chausuyama Castle I was not interested in a long boring walk along a highway to the top of the mountain so I looked to some of the roads at the base of the mountain to see if there might be a trail going up. The first road ended in a construction company, but the second one I tried ended at the bottom of the park with a sign for the castle! If you want to go from the bottom of the mountain in the residential area you should be able to figure out which road it was by looking at the map of photos.

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Gallery

Castle Profile
English Name	Terao Naka Castle
Japanese Name	寺尾中城
Founder	Nitta clan
Year Founded	12th C?
Castle Type	Mountaintop
Castle Condition	Ruins only
Historical Period	Pre Edo Period
Features	trenches
Visitor Information
Access	Takasaki Sta. (Ueno Takasaki Line); bus to Kannon Mountain Family Park, or walk (25 mins) to the base of the mountain from Negoya Station (Joshin Dentetsu)
Hours	Probably open 24/7 but the entrance from the Family Park may not be open when the park is closed.
Time Required	75 mins
URL	Castle Website
Location	Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture
Coordinates	36.29155, 138.99853
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Admin
Added to Jcastle	2020
Contributor	Eric
Admin Year Visited	2020
Admin Visits	February 11, 2020
Friends of JCastle
Kojodan - Teraonaka-jo

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@@ Line 13: / Line 13: @@
 |Artifacts=
 |Features=trenches
-|Access=Takasaki Sta. (); bus to Kannon Mountain Family Park, or walk (25 mins) to the base of the mountain from Negoya Station (Joshin Dentetsu)
+|Access=Takasaki Sta. (Ueno Takasaki Line); bus to Kannon Mountain Family Park, or walk (25 mins) to the base of the mountain from Negoya Station (Joshin Dentetsu)
 |Visitor Information=Probably open 24/7 but the entrance from the Family Park may not be open when the park is closed.
 |Time Required=75 mins