Northern Tohoku Castle Tour
Northern Tohoku Castle Tour
2021/01/31
My second Tohoku tour making use of the JR Welcome Pass took me to Aomori and Akita to visit some castles I missed on my trip from 2 years ago. At the time, I ran into rain and foul weather forcing me to skip some castles that I had wanted to visit. Unfortunately, I ran into rain or snow at some point on every part of this trip too and cut my visit short again. This could be some conspiracy by the Tohoku weather gods to make me visit yet again!
Wherever possible, I like to visit a cluster of related castles. There were a lot of good connections between all the castles on this trip with the exception of the ancient fortified village of Takayashikidate. See the visit notes below for details and follow through to the individual castle profiles for the histories and photos.
This is the last update of castle profiles from my 2020 travels. Despite much of the year being on-hold for COVID19 and recovering from a shoulder injury in early 2020, I visited 44 new castles in 2020, which was actually a one year record. I need to get out to visit some more sites once this State of Emeregency is over !
There are some signs and well worn trails so it is not hard to get around. There are also signs to beware of bears but the only wildlife I saw was a Kamoshika who protested my invasion of his home at tha Nakadate. Near the castle are also satellite fortifications Chausudate, Ohdate and the Tagayashi Yakata. Although slightly inconvenient this area seems much more suitable to a large scale castle town and a much more defensible base than the other Ando related castles as Wakimoto Castle and Minato Castle.
Hiyama Castle is a National Historic Site combined with Ohdate and ChausudateAcross the highway, beyond the Sannomaru Bailey there is a an old farmhouse that was moved to this location. It is used as a museum for Horikoshi Castle and local history. The diorama is also located here. It is open daily from 9am to 4pm, April 17 - November 23.
As noted in the Access field, there are 2 train stations that could be used to access Horikoshi Castle, but both are a bit far from the castle. Nisato Station has about one train per hour and Ishikawa Station has far fewer. There is a bus from Hirosaki Station to a bus stop called Horikoshi, which is only a short walk to the castle which might be your best option. The bus also runs about once per hour.Namioka Castle is quite close to Hirosaki and could be a good side trip along with a visit to Hirosaki Castle. Horikoshi Castle is also highly recommended so the three together would make an excellent two day castle tour.
You can rent bicycles at the station, but I did not see exactly where. I had my own bicycle with me. The Chuusei-no-Yakata also has a small museum and materials about the castle. It looks like it is worth visiting, but on the day I was here the building was closed, perhaps due to COVID19.There is a small building partway up the mountain where you will find a model of the castle and some very good pamphlets. The same pamphlets are available on the website so check the link there too. This castle is much more accessible than I thought (a castles that's easier than I thought for once!). There were maps at the station and the castle did not seem as far from the station as I thought either, followed by a quick climb up the hill. There were maps at the station about how to get to the castle too. The biggest problem is that there are not many trains along this train line. On the way back, I waited over an hour for the next train, having just missed one.
The Umanoriba is a bailey about a 10min walk from the main part of the castle. It's a nice walk, but a little slippery and narrow in some places. If you're interested in castles enough to visit Wakimoto Castle it's worth walking out here too but the trail from the northern part of the castle is easy to miss. Look at the map of photos below and you can clearly see how this section looks like a different castle location.
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