Unuma Castle

History

Unuma Castle was located on Shiroyama, a natural rocky mountain on the north bank of the Kiso River, opposite Inuyama Castle Unuma Castle was also known as Shisuiyama Kiriga-jo, and was built in the 1430s by Osawa Toshiharu who served the Toki and Saito clans.

In 1564, Oda Nobunaga ordered Kinoshita Tokichiro (Toyotomi Hideyoshi) to capture Unuma Castle and Igiyama Castle. Osawa Jirozaemon, lord of Unuma Castle, strongly resisted, but was finaly forced to surrender.

Unuma Castle was later given to Ikeda Tsuneo, master of Inuyama. After the Ikeda were transferred, Nakagawa Sadanari took over Inuyama Castle and Unuma. On March 13, 1584, during the Battle of Komaki and Nagakute, Ikeda Tsuneoki fighting for Hideyoshi entered Unuma Castle, his former domain, under the pretense of going to Eastern Mino, and took advantage of Tokugawa allied Nakagawa Sadanari's absence to swim the river and capture Inuyama Castle. Unuma Castle was later abandoned.

Until the 1950s, a moat and dorui earthen mounds remained on the west side but most were lost due to highway development. It is said that there is a monument to the Osawa clan at the top of the mountain.

Visit Notes

Unuma Castle is not far from Inuyama Castle. (These pictures) I shot while flying over Unuma Castle. The site is now Off Limits to the public.

The castle ruins are located on a small rocky hill (Shiroyama) near the Inuyama Bridge on the Meitetsu Line. There used to be an inn and restaurant called Shiroyama-so, but it was closed due to a major fire in December 1972 in which a number of people were apparently killed. The ruins were removed in 2002. The mountain itself is owned by Kakamigahara City, and plans are underway to develop it into a park by 2023, but the foot of the mountain is currently private property and cannot be accessed.

Profile by Chris Glenn (edited by ART).

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Gallery

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  Castle mount viewed from across the Kiso River - ART
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Castle Profile
English Name	Unuma Castle
Japanese Name	鵜沼城
Alternate Names	宇留間城 (Urumajō)
Founder	Osawa Toshiharu
Year Founded	1430s
Castle Type	Mountaintop
Castle Condition	Ruins only
Historical Period	Pre Edo Period
Features
Visitor Information
Access	Shin-Unuma Station on the Meitetsu-Inuyama Line; 5 minute walk
Visitor Information	Private Property
Time Required
Location	Kagamiǵahara, Gifu Prefecture
Coordinates	35° 23' 40.42" N, 136° 56' 44.16" E
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Admin
Added to Jcastle	2022
Contributor	豪谷
Admin Year Visited	Viewer Contributed
Friends of JCastle
Jōkaku Hōrōki

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ARTShogun

14 months ago

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Unlike a certain Nagoya-based radio host and author we all know and love, I couldn't visit this site by helicopter, so, instead, since I was visiting Inuyamajō, I got off at Inuyama-Yūenchi Station which is just one station along after Inuyama Station (I was even able to do that taking a Meitetsu train all the way from Higashi-Okazaki Station without any changes), and simply walked to the Kiso River where I took some nice photos of the castle mount from the Owari / Aichi side. Since this site is strictly off-limits, I had no scruples about simply taking pictures of the picturesque mount from below.

I was also able to see Inuyama Castle from a new angle. I walked along the river front to the more famous castle after that, enjoying the scenery. There was some graffiti under the bridge to Unuma but it was very wholesome: somebody had wished a happy 16th birthday to someone, probably their girlfriend, and in another place there was a segment of wall labelled 'our place' which some girls had carved out.

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