ART Update 2022 Part 6

Part 6 of ART's updates from the first half of 2022. This is the last set of completed updates focusing on Shiga Prefecture. See the castles and map below for details. If you haven't seen his Facebook Japanese Castle Group yet I highly encourag

ART Update 2022 Part 6

2022/10/14

Part 6 of ART's updates from the first half of 2022. This is the last set of completed updates focusing on Shiga Prefecture. See the castles and map below for details. If you haven't seen his Facebook Japanese Castle Group yet I highly encourage you to do so. There are contributions from a variety of members, discussion and news about castle developments and discoveries.

Iwakura Castle / 岩倉城

Iwakurajō is a satellite castle of Koźutsumijō (Kozutsumi Castle). It's an intriguing site. One ascends to the site of the castle and there is a ridge. It seems like a very scrawny, narrow bailey, until one looks to one's left and realises that this ridge acts as large wall of earth for the real bailey complex which is situated below. Essentially there is one bailey surrounded by this tall dorui carved from the mountain's ridges. There is terracing beneath the dorui on the inside though, creating sub-baileys above the main bailey (usually sub-baileys are found below not above the central bailey). This set-up is a sort of inversion of what we would expect from a yamajiro (mountaintop castle), like a yamajiro turned inside-out! The site then takes on the qualities of the truly mysterious because at the centre of the bailey is a pond. This pond has a channel from which water is slowly drained off, yet it is said to never empty. Presumably the water wells up from some place below, as it cannot possibly be fed from any streams above in this strange, craterous space. This means that the defenders of Iwakurajō never lacked for a water source, which is one of the most important considerations of siting a castle.

Kamagari Castle (Shiga) /

[[|200px|link=Kamagari Castle (Shiga)]]

Kanzaki Imamura Castle /

Kanzaki Kakimi Castle /

[[|200px|link=Kanzaki Kakimi Castle]]

Kanzaki Kawanami Castle /

[[|200px|link=Kanzaki Kawanami Castle]]

Kanzaki Shichiri Yakata /

[[|200px|link=Kanzaki Shichiri Yakata]]

Kanzaki Taikouji Yakata /

[[|200px|link=Kanzaki Taikouji Yakata]]

Kanzaki Tanemura Castle /

[[|200px|link=Kanzaki Tanemura Castle]]

Kanzaki Yabutsude Castle /

[[|200px|link=Kanzaki Yabutsude Castle]]

Kunori Yakata / 九之里館

No ruins remain of Kunori-yakata and the site is now a residential area and shrines. A signboard about the history of this site can be found near Wakamiya-jinja. Hongō-jinja is also nearby.

Kutsuki Izuminokami Jin'ya / 朽木和泉守陣屋

The site of Kutsukiizuminokami-jin'ya retains some ishigaki (stone-piled retaining walls) and is now the site of a cemetery and a shrine to Inari. I photographed the stone walls but didn't enter the cemetery because it was being worked on.

Kutsuki Shuzen Jin'ya / 朽木主膳陣屋

No ruins remain of Kutsukishuzen-jin'ya, and the site is now a residential block in the town of Hachiman. There is an old house on site which is rather a fetching and a worthy inheritor of the jin'ya perhaps. Excavations seemed to have been carried out at the site.

Nagahara Castle / 永原城

The ruins of Nagaharajō include mizubori (water moats) and tall dorui (earthen ramparts). The main bailey is ensconced by dorui and a mizubori on three sides, but there were two other baileys besides and I suspect i found the remnants of more earthworks at a shrine in the surrounding village. For entry into the main bailey please refer to RaymondW's comment below.

Ogawa Castle (Omi) / 近江小川城

There is a sign board about the castle but I could find no ruins. Note: This is Ogawa Castle in historical Kanzaki County, Ōmi Province, not to be confused with Ogawa Castle in Kōka County, Ōmi Province, found here: Ogawa Castle (Koka).

Sakurabasama Castle / 桜生城

Sakurabasamajō is a hirajiro (flatland castle) featuring 5m tall dorui (earthen ramparts) and mizubori (water moats). The castle was situated on a slope and the mizubori were situated below. Ramparts surround the whole castle compound, but the rear portions are covered in bamboo thickets. Considering the castle's name, it was only fitting to also find lots of sakura trees here.

Sakurabasamade Castle / 桜生出城

Sakurabasamadejō was a satellite fortification of Sakurabasamajō ('dejō' indicating a branch fortification of a larger site). It's actually a mountaintop site, being situated on a hill at the edge of a mountain chain overlooking the plain, and so I was eager to find something tangible, but nowhere could I access this site. It seems there is no path to reach it. On one side is a road which cuts into the mountain and has wrought steep, concreted sides, and from every other direction the hill is surrounded by private property. But I did get close enough to take some pictures of the fort mount, and beneath the site is a kofun (ancient burial mound) complex with well maintained tombs. One can even go inside the burial mounds where there are large stone sarcophagi! This was unanticipated but very interesting. Maps of this site show a single bailey fort complex with some tatebori (climbing moats). My respect to the castle blogger at Jōkaku Tanbō ('Searching for Castles') who made it up onto the hill and confirmed the existence of ruins here.

Sanominami Yakata / 佐野南館

No ruins remain of Sanominami-yakata, at least not above ground, and the site is now rice paddies and pleasant fields adjacent to the Ishibaji River.

Utsuro Yakata / 宇津呂館

Utsuro-yakata was located between what is now the site of Hachiman-jinja, a small local shrine to Hachiman in the neighbourhood of Nakamura, and the Kure-Hachiman-jinja, another small shrine between the Nakamura and Honmachi neighbourhoods. Neither shrines are to be confused with the Himure-Hachimangū, the main shrine in Ōmi-Hachiman at the foot of Mount Hachiman. There is also an Utsuro neighbourhood of Ōmi-Hachiman, but this is located to the east of the yakata site. I visited the southerly Hachiman-jinja, found nothing, and stopped searching, eager to get on with my main intinerary for the day. However, according to some castle bloggers the remains of what may have been a moat of the fortified residence can be found behind the northerly Kure-Hachiman-jinja. I didn't check here. I suppose it makes sense that there are lots of shrines to Hachiman in Ōmi-Hachiman!

Wada Yakata (Kanzaki) / 神埼和田館

Wada-yakata, the fortified residence of the Ōmi-Wada Clan, is now the site of a shrine and rural homes in the village of Wada, Higashi-Ōmi. See also Kanzaki Wadayama Castle and Kanzaki Wadayamako Castle.

Yamaji Castle (Omi) / 近江山路城

A series of water ways surround Jōgenji, a temple, and residential area in an 'L' shape, and these are thought to be the remains of moats of the castle, though they were probably much wider originally. In the village of Yamaji, now contiguous with the town of Notogawa due to suburban developments, their are neighbourhood names such as Hori ('Moat'), Shiro ('Castle') and Shirobashimae ('Castle Bridge Entrance').