26 New Nagano Prefecture Castle from ART
26 New Nagano Prefecture Castle from ART
2021/10/01
Just in time for the autumn castle season to begin, ART brings us 26 new castle sites in Nagano Prefecture to explore. Are there any left to post here? Or have we seen everything there is to offer in Nagano? Only time will tell...
If you haven't seen ART's Japanese Castles Facebook page, check it out as well. All these photos and more have been posted there at some point or will be soon.
Akiba Fort / 秋葉砦
Asahiyama Castle / 旭山城
Furumaya Castle (Azumi) / 安曇古厩城
Furumaya Yakata / 安曇古厩館
Habauehori Yashiki / 巾上堀屋敷
Hosogaya Yakata / 細萱館
Imai Fort / 今井砦
Iwahara Castle (Azumi) / 安曇岩原城
Kamihiraideko Castle (Ina) / 伊那上平井出小城
Katsurayama Castle / 葛山城
Katsurayamajō is a great Shinano yamajiro (mountaintop castle) site. It doesn't have ishigaki - that I saw - but the earthworks are very engaging. A trail rises up the ridge from the satellite fort, and this has embankments on each side, a feature which is sometimes referred to as an Ôte. This may have been the historical path to the castle then too. I retain a fairly decent impression of the castle's general layout merely from wondering around. The main path goes presently to the main bailey area, passing beneath an undulating ridge striped with tatebori (climbing moats), and passing over small terraced baileys on the mountainside. From the main area of the castle are three major spokes. One is made up of a series of subsidiary baileys perforated by trenches, and the other is made up of fairly sizable terraced baileys with impressive embankments but without trenches.
The third spoke is the one I passed below on the climb up. This is a series of no less than nine horikiri (trenches). On closer inspection the first of these is a solid double moat, and one passes over this to reach the main bailey from the main path. Thereafter there are two sets of moat complexes. This feature of trenches in succession is called unejō-horikiri in Japanese, or "rib moats". This is a really impressive feature of Katsurayamajō, and is fairly well known amongst local yamajiro fans. I descended from this area, encountering many other earthworks, such as horikiri, tatebori, dobashi (earthen bridges), dorui (earthen ramparts), and the remains of wells.
You see the moats in my pictures here mostly covered in young bamboo. It seems the ruins have been periodically cleared in the past, but, of course, bamboo grows back quickly. Luckily the general form was still visible during my visit. You know at some point before the bamboo was cut back some legend of castling must've gone in there, plunging like a rat into a sewer drain, getting neck-deep in vegetation, practically feeling for the contours of the trenches. That's amazing. Apparently much of the entire mountain was fortified, carved piece by piece, sculpted from the very earth itself into an impregnable fortress. That's even more incredible. I followed a trail all the way down to another peak, which seemed to me to be suspiciously flattened, and vaguely terraced even, but it was hard to tell. Was this another part of the expanded fortification? Well, it's possible but I'm hardly about to claim my own discovered fort; the experts will have it mapped and noted somewhere. I can find no information on it, however. Anyway, this should give the reader a general impression of the expansiveness of the site and the excitement of exploring it.Kobinata Oh'yashiki / 小日向大屋敷
Koshibami Castle / 小柴見城
Kubodera Castle / 窪寺城
Misayama Castle / 三才山城
Misayamajō, is also referred to as Misayama-toride. Sometimes the reading is given as "Sansaiyamajō", but is that because non-locals don't know otherwise? I - along with other sources - have elected to use "Misayama" because that is the name of the village below. Although it is thought that the castle was a branch fortification of nearby Akazawa Clan castles, Misayamajō had a kyokan (residential area) at the foot of the mountain, referred to as the Kobinata-Ôyashiki (Kobinata Oh'yashiki).
Misayamajō, situated at a relative height of over 300m, is not recommended for novice climbers. I climbed up the steep mountainside which included bare rockface. I descended via the long ridge which is like a runway to the castle, but even this terminates in a steep area without a trail. A fence surrounds the mountain to deter animals from entering the village. The area to start from is the path to the east of the Yakushidō (Medicine Buddha Hall).Mondo Castle (Azumi) / 安曇主水城
Ou Castle (Ina) / 伊那王城
Shibutami Castle (Azumi) / 安曇渋田見城
Shibutami Yakata / 渋田見館
Shimofuri Fort / 下降砦
Shinagura Castle / 稲倉城
Takisawa Castle (Azumi) / 安曇滝沢城
Takisawa Yakata / 滝沢館
Tanoiri Castle (Azumi) / 安曇田ノ入城
Yabarahigashimura Yashiki / 矢原東村屋敷
Yamaguchi Yashiki / 山口屋敷
Yoritomoyama Fort / 頼朝山砦
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