Yuasa Castle
Yuasajō is a yamajiro (mountiantop castle) ruin in Yuasa Township, Arida County. It is made up of a handful of baileys clustered on the hilltop. There is a hiking trial up the hill to the southwest, but the municipal website page for the castle ruins says that they are not open to the public. Due to
History
Yuasajō was first built in 1143 by Yuasa Muneshige. The Yuasa Clan served the Minamoto Clan and were appointed as magistrates of several townships by the Kamakura shogunate. During the wars of the northern and southern courts of the fourteenth century, the Yuasa initially supported the southern court, but when things went south for the southern court (ahem), the Yuasa Clan descended into a state of in-fighting, and the power waned considerably thereafter.
Yuasajō was designated as a national historic site in 2021 as part of a series of related medieval sites associated with the Yuasa Clan throughout Arida County.
Field Notes
Yuasajō is a yamajiro (mountiantop castle) ruin in Yuasa Township, Arida County. It is made up of a handful of baileys clustered on the hilltop. There is a hiking trial up the hill to the southwest, but the municipal website page for the castle ruins says that they are not open to the public. Due to this, and it being summer, I did not climb the castle-mount.
Yuasajō is most famous for the "reconstructed" historicist hot spring resort and hotel building at the foot of the castle-mount (on its upland side). Naturally, I consider this a mogi (folly). It departs from other castle mogies in that it was built for commercial purposes rather than as solely as a reconstruction or as a museum. As such it has many additional infrastructual features.
This more well-known Yuasajō, officially the Yuasa Castle Onsen Hotel, is a large scale mogi consisting of a cental five-tier tower in a courtyard surrounded by smaller keeps each of two storeys as well as tamon-yagura (connecting single-tier rowhouse turrets). There is an entrance area with a grand genkan (entrance portico). To the rear the castle overlooks a slope up onto the plateau and so mock ishigaki (stone-piled ramparts) has been constructed beneath these towers.
Gallery
| Castle Profile | |
|---|---|
| English Name | Yuasa Castle |
| Japanese Name | 湯浅城 |
| Founder | Yuasa Muneshige |
| Year Founded | 1143 |
| Castle Type | Mountaintop |
| Castle Condition | Reconstructed main keep |
| Designations | National Historic Site |
| Historical Period | Pre Edo Period |
| Features | main keep, turrets, stone walls |
| Visitor Information | |
| Access | Yuasa Station on the Kisei Line; 25 min walk to trail |
| Hours | Access Limited |
| Time Required | |
| URL | Castle Website |
| Location | Yuasa, Wakayama Prefecture |
| Coordinates | 34.03549, 135.19377 |
|
|
|
| Admin | |
| Added to Jcastle | 2025 |
| Contributor | ART |
| Admin Year Visited | Viewer Contributed |
| Friends of JCastle | |
| Jōkaku Hōrōki | |
