Nakatou Castle

History

It is thought that Nakatōjō was built by the Nishimaki Clan for in the event that their main base at Nishimakijō / Kitajōjō (Azumi Nishimaki Castle) fell and they had to retreat to an even more defensible area. Nakatōjō would've fallen under the suzerainty of the Ogasawara Clan, the nominal rulers of Shinano Province, in the early Sengoku Period. In 1545, however, Takeda Shingen invaded Shinano. Ogasawara Nagatoki allied the clan with the Uesugi of Echigo but still suffered successive defeats, allowing the Takeda to swallow up Ogasawara territory. In 1549 Fukashijō (Matsumoto Castle) was beseiged, followed by Hayashijō in 1550. It seems that Nagatoki was a master at hopping from castle to castle. After retreating from Hirase Castle he holed up in Nakatōjō for over six months before being rescued by Uesugi Kenshin - this according to accounts made in records of the Futagi and Mizoguchi families some years later. At this time Futagi Shigetaka was the commander of Nakatōjō and it was apparently upon his advice that Nagatoki retreated there.

Visit Notes

Castle of Monkeys and Toads, the ruins of Nakatōjō belong to the animal kingdom now. This site is not easy to explore and I might recommend it only for experienced castle explorers. Early on I encountered a large toad, the biggest amphibian I've encountered in the wild; who knows what rock it had been sleeping under. I came to an area with a pylon, situated half way along the ridge that the ruins occupy. I heard things moving in the forest up ahead - and the occassional strange call. I climbed a little up a leg of the pylon to try to get a good look but couldn't see anything through the trees. As I continued on trapsing through the medieval earthworks I realised there were monkeys climbing up the ridge ahead of me. Slowly I gained on them. I came particularly close to one. It seemed to move as I did but not look directly at me. At first I thought it hadn't seen me, but it proved to merely not react to my presence with any sense of urgency. As I came very close it moved a couple of branches higher in the tree it was in and went about its monkey business. I was directly below it. I took some pictures and moved on with my castling.

There is no hiking trail at Nakatōjō. The ruins are the trail! A forking configuration of climbing moats allow access to the ridge. These continue up to a series of minor baileys terraced into the ridge. Just after my encounter with the monkeys I found a large horikiri, a trench cut into the ridge to create an impediment of rock and earth. More climbing trenches streak below the ridge as well as up along it, passing now by increasingly evident terracing. The largest baileys are at the top of the ruins, and after so much climbing the relative flatness of the ground here is an incongruent boon. I continued on here until I saw that the ridge had narrowed once again and I came to one final trench. From here the ridge sweeped up again to the top of the mountain but I saw that the earthwork ruins were at an end. In a fraction of the time it took me to ascend I was able to fly down the mountain. Or, I might say, it wasn't flying, it was falling with style.

Gallery

Castle Profile
English Name	Nakatou Castle
Japanese Name	中塔城
Alternate Names	中野城
Founder	Nishimaki Clan
Year Founded	Sengoku Period
Castle Type	Mountaintop
Castle Condition	Ruins only
Historical Period	Pre Edo Period
Artifacts	Dorui, Horikiri, Tatebori, Yokobori, Kuruwa
Features	trenches
Visitor Information
Access	Nearest Station is Hata Station on the Kamikouchi Line
Visitor Information	24/7 free; mountain
Time Required	120 minutes
Location	Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture
Coordinates	36° 14' 25.69" N, 137° 49' 3.11" E
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Admin
Added to Jcastle	2020
Contributor	ART
Admin Year Visited	Viewer Contributed

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