Sasayama Castle

This is a fascinating castle. It's a simple stout stronghold, with tall thick stone walls and an ominous presence that dominates the whole plain. The main keep was never built but it just shows how the main keep is really just for show, not military purposes. Sasayama Castle's purpose was to contro

History

From the top of Mt. Takashiro to the Southeast of Sasayama Castle the Hatano ruled over the Tanba area from Yagami Castle. Yagami Castle fell to attacks by Akechi Mitsuhide in 1579. In 1608 Tokugawa Ieyasu's son Matsudaira Yasushige became lord of Yagami Castle. The following year, Ieyasu initiated the construction of Sasayama Castle while dismantling Yagami Castle as part of his plan to better control Osaka Castle, the Toyotomi and the other lords of Western Japan. The castle was designed by Todo Takatora and completed in only six months. It is famous for having an intact gate type called umadashi.

Eventually, all the structures of this castle were destroyed and in 1944 the Oshoin Palace was burned in a fire. The palace was reconstructed from original pictures and also by making reference to the Ninomaru Palace at Nijo Castle. You can see many of these original pictures and the reconstruction progress on the website.Sasayama sits in a basin surrounded by mountains on all sides. When visiting this location it is easy to get caught up in the castle and castle town in such an isolated atmosphere of mountains. Even though there are almost no structures reamining of the castle today one can easily imagine what it was like surrounded by the atmosphere of this castle and castle town. There is also a museum and samurai home to tell the story of samurai in this area.

This area is famous for a kind of black bean and wild boar meat. These Tanba area beans are large and sweet with an excellent flavor. They also have bread among many other dishes made from these beans. There are few tourists during the off season though there tend to be many for Cherry Blossoms in the spring and the Summer Festival.

Field Notes

This is a fascinating castle. It's a simple stout stronghold, with tall thick stone walls and an ominous presence that dominates the whole plain. The main keep was never built but it just shows how the main keep is really just for show, not military purposes. Sasayama Castle's purpose was to control the Western lords and fortify the roads to Osaka.

The castle is also well preserved. The palace unfortunately burned down in 1944, but it was rebuilt from original photos and with reference to the Ninomaru Palace at Nijo Castle from 1996-2000. Although they Sasayama Castle should be noted for the 2 umadashi style gates that fortify the main

I'm not sure what took me so long to visit there because it's not so difficult

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Gallery

NE Umadashi Gate
NE Umadashi Gate
NE Umadashi Gate
SW Umadashi Gate
SW Umadashi Gate

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Castle Profile
English Name	Sasayama Castle
Japanese Name	篠山城
Alternate Names	Kirigajo
Founder	Tokugawa Ieyasu
Year Founded	1609
Castle Type	Hilltop
Castle Condition	No main keep but other buildings
Designations	Top 100 Castles, National Historic Site
Historical Period	Edo Period
Year Reconstructed	2000 (Osyoin Palace)
Features	palace, samurai homes, water moats, trenches, stone walls, walls
Visitor Information
Access	Sasayama-guchi Station (Fukuchiyama Line), bus
Hours
Time Required
URL	Castle Website
Location	Sasayama, Hyogo Prefecture
Coordinates	35.07341, 135.21757
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Admin
Added to Jcastle	2004
Admin Year Visited	2018
Admin Visits	December 20, 2018

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Sasayama Castle

History

Field Notes

Gallery

More Galleries and Feature Pages

Nearby Samurai Homes