Added Yoshida Koriyama Castle in Hiroshima

2019/10/12

A rainy saturday is the perfect time to work on updating my castle profiles. Here is the first day of a trip to Hiroshima. Yoshida Koriyama Castle is one of the Top 100 Castles and the last one I needed to add to this site. Now you can see the full list and map here.

Koriyama Castle was too vast and I had too much fun exploring this site that I ran out of time to visit nearby Goryu Castle, so I visited two small satellite fortifications a short walk from the Akitakata City Museum. Details below...

Funayama Castle / 船山城

You can see a couple embankments and small trenches here. There is no map or sign pointing to the castle but there is a slight trail you can see from across the road by the sign about the castle. Follow the trail up and you'll find the ruins easily. Funayama Castle and Tenjinyama Castle are two minor satellite castles around the side of Koriyama Castle (Hiroshima) at the end of a ridge connecting to Koriyama Castle. A kiritoshi, or road was cut away through the mountain ridge at this point and a small castle was built on either side of it for the Battle of Koriyama. I did not know about these castles until I visited the Akitakata City Museum. I had run out of time to visit Goryu Castle, so I walked the 1km over here around the side of Koriyama Castle to visit Funayama Castle and Tenjinyama Castle next to it.

Koriyama Castle (Hiroshima) / 郡山城

This is a huge mountaintop castle. The main compound is at the peak with numerous smaller baileys going down each of the ridges radiating out from the top. Look at the map here in the brochure or the map below with the pinned photos for an idea of this. Around the Honmaru and Ninomaru at the top you see the remains of stone walls all over. There is also a sub castle or smaller set of castle ruins on the southeast slope which was the site of the original castle from which the vast mountain fortress expanded.

The trails through the main parts are easy to follow and it is very well signposted making it enjoyable and understandable even for inexperienced mountain castle fans. The walking is fairly easy for a mountain and I saw people who were not dressed for typical mountaintop castles. That being said, you can also go off trail down some of these ridges to see smaller baileys and trenches too. If you want to see the old castle ruins the trail is steep and slippery so you need good shoes and a trekking pole would be nice. I saw some people turn back, but it's worth the trip down.

I had originally planned for about 3 hours on site and thought I could visit another castle this day, but I ended up spending over 5 hours exploring everything I could. Instead of visiting another castle I went to the Akitakata City Museum which turned out to be surprisingly good. There was a lot of information about the castles in the Akitakata area and I picked up a booklet of maps and details for 60 of them.

There are actually several different ways to get to the castle. The route I gave above seems to be the best for someone traveling from Hiroshima. You can also take a 15 minute taxi from the Mukaihara Sta. (Geibi Line) or other combinations of trains and busses.

Tenjinyama Castle (Hiroshima) / 天神山城

There are no signs or trails here, unlike Funayama Castle across the road. You need to just scramble up the cliffside to get there. Even with good shoes and a trekking pole I had a hard time getting up the slippery cliffside. I can't recommend going up here unless you really want to. It's also heavily wooded and hard to get around as you are constantly maneuvering around hanging tree branches and fallen trees. Funayama Castle and Tenjinyama Castle are two minor satellite castles around the side of Koriyama Castle (Hiroshima) at the end of a ridge connecting to Koriyama Castle. A kiritoshi, or road was cut away through the mountain ridge at this point and a small castle was built on either side of it for the Battle of Koriyama. I did not know about these castles until I visited the Akitakata City Museum. I had run out of time to visit Goryu Castle, so I walked the 1km over here around the side of Koriyama Castle to visit Funayama Castle and Tenjinyama Castle next to it.

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