Yamato Koriyama Castle

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Koriyama8.jpg

History

After Tsutsui Junkei defeated his long time enemy Matsunaga Hisahide in 1580 he moved to Koriyama strengthening the fortifications that were there and building Koriyama Castle. In 1585 Hideyoshi's brother Hidenaga moved into Koriyama Castle and conducted many improvements making it into a large scale modern castle. He also confiscated many stones from nearby temple gardens and even religious statues for use in the walls. Mashita Nagamori moved into the castle in 1595 but abandoned it when he lost at the Battle of Sekigahara. The castle fell into disrepair for a time until Ieyasu stationed Mizuno Katsushige here in 1615 and commissioned him to reconstruct the castle. Yanagisawa Yoshisato became lord of the castle in 1724. The Yanagisawa continued to rule until the Meiji Restoration when the castle was abandoned.


Visit Notes

This site was much better than I expected. The reconstructed buildings and many remaining moats and stone walls make this a great location to visit.
思った位以上に面白い城跡でした。復元の建物とたくさんの石垣と堀があって大変おすすめです。




Gallery
  • Otemon Gate
  • Ote East Corner Yagura
  • Yanagi Gate stone walls
  • Sakuramon Gate stone walls
  • Stone walls of the Kuroganemon Gate
  • Honmaru moat and stone walls
  • Honmaru moat and stone walls
  • Ote Mukai Yagura
  • Otemon
  • Otemon
  • Ote Mukai Yagura
  • Back of the Otemon Gate
  • Ote East Corner Yagura
  • Ote East Corner Yagura
  • Ote East Corner Yagura
  • Tamon Yagura or the Otemon Gate
  • Honmaru moat
  • Main keep foundation
  • Main keep foundation
  • Stone walls of the Gokuraku Bridge and Hakutaku Gate
  • Gokuraku Bridge and Hakutaku Gate
  • Stone walls of the Chikurin Bridge and gate
  • Stone walls of the Chikurin Gate
  • Stone walls of the Chikurin Gate
  • Stone walls of the Shoin Gate
  • Shoin Ike Moat
  • Stone walls near the Shoin Gate
  • Unagibori Ike Stone walls
  • Unagibori Ike Moat
  • Map


Castle Profile
English Name Yamato Koriyama Castle
Japanese Name 大和郡山城
Founder Tsutsui Junkei
Year Founded 1580
Castle Type Mountaintop
Castle Condition No main keep but other buildings
Designations Next 100 Castles, Prefectural Historic Site
Historical Period Edo Period
Features gates, turrets, water moats, stone walls, walls
Visitor Information
Access Yamato Koriyama Sta. (Kintetsu Nara Line); 7 min. walk
Visitor Information Open anytime. I hear that the reconstructed yagura and gate are open during certain times like the cherry blossom festival.
Time Required 90 mins
Website http://www.yk-kankou.jp/spotDetail1.html
Location Yamato Koriyama, Nara Prefecture
Coordinates 34° 39' 5.29" N, 135° 46' 46.52" E
Loading map...
Admin
Added to Jcastle 2009
Admin Year Visited 2016
Admin Visits Dec 24, 2016
Friends of JCastle
Malcolm Fairman Photography - Koriyama Castle


2.79
(14 votes)
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avatar

Matthew WardGunshi

10 months ago
Score 1++

I went to this castle early this month (April 2023), during the castle festival. Really excellent place that I had never heard of till recently (I only found out about it because I noticed that my wife had a Kansai castle walk guidebook). But the ruins of the stone walls and moats are pretty grand and often dramatic. The rebuilt wooden bridge over the inner moat (quite a nice structure in itself) presents an especially great view. The rebuilt yagura and Ote gate are also nice and look authentic. I was able to go inside one of them--they were actually selling festival-related local goods there, which was interesting! The other really impressive thing was the main keep foundation--really imposing structure. There is a video about how they did it in the sort of visitors center (which I think is a historic library).

There are some other buildings on the site, including the visitors' center/old library, a shrine in the honmaru, and also another fairly grand building near the Ote Gate. None of these relate to castle defense as far as I can tell, but to me they added to the historical ambience of the place.

Anyway, not a great castle but a very good one and definitely worth checking out for people who live in Kansai.
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FurinkazanDaimyo

14 months ago
Score 1++
On 11/12/2022 I visited this site again. I appreciated it more than on my first visit in 2010. I came from the JR Kôriyama station. It's about a 1.2km walk. First I went to the outer north bailey's gate and went straight to the moat around the still surviving buildings. The path around the honmaru is closed, due to works being done. The reconstructed bridge is a marvel. It wasn't there in 2010. I went also on the tenshudai(donjon foundation).
avatar

ARTShogun

72 months ago
Score 2++

Yamato-Kōriyamajō is probably Nara City’s closest major castle so you can go if you visit Nara. There is a reconstructed gate and a yagura here which are perched between and on top of beautiful stone walls and encircled by a complicated system of winding, spiraling moats, which range from dry, to muddy, to very deep water. I came on a festival day and the whole site was busy with vendors selling food and running games, children off school eating said food and playing said games, and couples on kimono dates viewing the cherry blossoms. The blossoms! Although yet to utterly explode into blooming effulgence, Sakura had started to appear, including a shidarezukura which droops over the moat and makes the yagura very photogenic. Little paths wind around the jagged inner moats surrounding the honmaru (main bailey), hemmed in by lanterns and bushes. The castle would’ve been very cosy if it didn’t also function as a death trap for invaders! The tenshukakudai remains, looking in its proportions like some tremendous ziggurat, and is yet formidable. Soon after my visit it became open to the public to ascend.

The outer baileys of the castle are spread throughout town and now you can find pockets of them forming little parks surrounded by traditional walls.
avatar

ARTShogun

72 months ago
Score 1++

Yamato-Kōriyamajō is probably Nara City’s closest major castle so you can go if you visit Nara. There is a reconstructed gate and a yagura here which are perched between and on top of beautiful stone walls and encircled by a complicated system of winding, spiraling moats, which range from dry, to muddy, to very deep water. I came on a festival day and the whole site was busy with vendors selling food and running games, children off school eating said food and playing said games, and couples on kimono dates viewing the cherry blossoms. The blossoms! Although yet to utterly explode into blooming effulgence, Sakura had started to appear, including a shidarezukura which droops over the moat and makes the yagura very photogenic. Little paths wind around the jagged inner moats surrounding the honmaru (main bailey), hemmed in by lanterns and bushes. The castle would’ve been very cosy if it didn’t also function as a death trap for invaders! The tenshukakudai remains, looking in its proportions like some tremendous ziggurat, and is yet formidable. Soon after my visit it became open to the public to ascend.

The outer baileys of the castle are spread throughout town and now you can find pockets of them forming little parks surrounded by traditional walls. One such pretty park I’ve also included in this album.
avatar

SuupaahiirooAshigaru

85 months ago
Score 0++
The viewing platform at the tenshu-dai will open to the public starting from March 26th, 13 o'clock. http://www.c.../004503.html
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Jcastle.oldHatamoto

87 months ago
Score 0++
suupaahiiro, I visited recently as well and was very surprised and pleased at how nice it was. You'll probably see all new pictures up here since you last visited this page including the drawing of the reconstructed image of the Gokuraku Bridge and gate.
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SuupaahiirooAshigaru

87 months ago
Score 0++

I enjoyed this castle site immensely. The ishigaki are impressive and the reconstructed yagura are very nicely done. I personally think the train line makes for an interesting juxtaposition and good photo opportunities, but I can understand other people don't like it. The observation platform at the tenshukakudai seems to be almost finished. There are concrete plans to rebuild one of the bridges. They received a donation of 300 million yen to build it and plan to finish by 2020, in time for the Olympics (source: http://maini.../040/433000c). Take a look at the sign I photographed, it includes an artist's impression (I hope the reconstruction includes the gate as well!). http://imgur.com/a/2mIKm

Rent a bicycle at Yamato-Saidaiji station and visit Unesco World Heritage sites Yakushi-ji and Tōshōdai-ji along the way tp the castle. It makes for very nice daytrip.
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Anonymous user #1

91 months ago
Score 0++
Administrative building on the grounds of the castle actually is former Public Library of the Nara Prefecture and was erected in 1908
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ARTShogun

97 months ago
Score 0++
Little paths take you around the moats. Blossoming trees make the yagura more photogenic. From April you may access the tenshukakudai. The view from thEre should be good. The otemon has a pottery exhibit and the yagura and wall corridor are a photo gallery. I only had eyes for the castle though. The nearby building, built in the meiji or taisho is actually where the committee to rebuild the castle operate from. They have a model of the castle in Edo and lots of leaflets. Visit them and say you wish to learn about the castle.
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RaymondWDaimyo

144 months ago
Score 0++
I went to this castle again today. It's the first time that I have been to Yamato-Koriyama Castle outside of the winter months. This place gets overgrown pretty quickly for some of its moats and stone walls. There are lots of cherry trees here, but they have since shed their pink blossoms for lots of green leaves, so the leaves also pretty much prevent a clear view of the ishigaki, particularly the tenshudai (stone base of the former castle keep). However, the trip to this castle ruin was just a warm-up for the arvo trip to Kizu, Kyoto to suss out Kaseyama Castle Ruin, a mountaintop castle that slips under the radar of most Japanese castle and castle ruin books. It is easy to visit both Koriyama Castle and Kaseyama Castle in one day as JR Koriyama and Kizu Stations are only around 15 minutes apart.
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RaymondWDaimyo

158 months ago
Score 0++
I went to Yamato-Koriyama Castle again today. The inside of the main gate (Outemon) and the turret (Outemukai Yagura) that you see in the first photo are definitely wooden reconstructions. They are open to the public until 11th March when the Bonsai Plum Blossom Exhibition ends. I think it is the 8th one, so they may have one of these exhibition every year.
avatar

RaymondWDaimyo

159 months ago
Score 0++
As Furinkazan commented below, the ishigaki of Japanese castles can be (and often are) overgrown with weeds and undergrowth during the warmer months of the year. My visits to this castle has always been in the winter, so no problem with any plant growth obstructing a clear view of all the stonework. BTW, I was at this castle earlier in the week. There is going to be a plum blossom bonsai exhibition here from 5th February to 11th March, 2011. During that time, the interior of the main gate and the turrets will be open to the public. Entry is 450 yen. 9:30 - 4:30 weekdays and 9:30 - 5:00 weekends and public holidays. I will be going back to suss out the interior which is usually closed to the public. I had a closer look at the reconstruction of the yaguras from the outside, and I reckon they are probably rebuilt from wood and not the horrible ferroconcrete stuff.
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RaymondWDaimyo

159 months ago
Score 0++
There aren't many reconstructed fortifications at this castle ruin site, but the ishigaki, dry and water moats are pretty nice. The castle is also concentrically ringed by moats. Unfortunately, the Kintetsu train line runs right through one of the baileys of this castle ruin. Access is very easy from Kintetsu Koriyama Station, almost an hour by train from Kyoto Station if you take the ones with limited stops. There are also lots of cherry trees here, so it will be quite pretty during cherry blossom season.
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FurinkazanDaimyo

163 months ago
Score 0++

I got to this castle today. There is not a lot to see apart from the 2 yagura and the gate. The walls of the baileys are covered with brush and trees. I encountered a group making a film. They took a picture of me surrounded by a samurai and a shinobi.

I would not go to this castle if i was not in Nara for 2 days(4min with the local train).