Hitomoshi Castle (Saku)

History

Hitomoshijō was a branch fort constructed by Aiki Tokie, lord of Aikijō. It was a small fort principally used as a noroshidai, or signal tower. Aiki Tokie initially resisted but would later pledge allegiance to Takeda Shingen. He fought for Takeda Shingen at the siege of Taketenjinjō, and later became lord of Taguchijō. Hitomoshijō was incorporated into the noroshidai network used by the Takeda Clan throughout Saku. The name 'Hitomoshi' simply means 'Firelight'.

Visit Notes

Hitomoshijō, the third stop on my miyagura tour in Saku, is a fortified beacon site overlooking the beautiful Omika Falls. We appreciated the natural beauty cascading and flowing about us before making the steep ascent onto the hill above where there is a reconstructed miyagura. There are two ridge spurs beneath the main bailey where the yagura is situated, and these seem to have been used as part of the fort. Both spurs end in cliffs, with the lower spur overlooking the falls, which, though pretty, would be death to plunge into. In this way the fort space is naturally easy to defend and cuts a very impressive profile with its sheer, watery drops. To the rear of the bailey-keep are horikiri, trenches cut into the ridge to protect the mountainside flank of the earthen fort.

Loading map...

{"format":"leaflet","minzoom":false,"maxzoom":false,"limit":500,"offset":0,"link":"all","sort":["order"],"order":[],"headers":"show","mainlabel":"","intro":"","outro":"","searchlabel":"... further results","default":"","import-annotation":false,"width":"auto","height":"350px","centre":false,"title":"","label":"","icon":"Darkred18.png","lines":[],"polygons":[],"circles":[],"rectangles":[],"copycoords":false,"static":false,"zoom":false,"defzoom":14,"layers":["Esri.WorldTopoMap"],"image layers":[],"overlays":[],"resizable":false,"fullscreen":false,"scrollwheelzoom":true,"cluster":false,"clustermaxzoom":20,"clusterzoomonclick":true,"clustermaxradius":80,"clusterspiderfy":true,"geojson":"","clicktarget":"","showtitle":false,"hidenamespace":true,"template":"InfoWindowProfile","userparam":"","activeicon":"","pagelabel":false,"ajaxcoordproperty":"","ajaxquery":"","locations":[{"text":"\u003Cdiv style=\"width:150px\"\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\"/view/File:SakuHitomoshijou_(1).JPG\" class=\"image\"\u003E\u003Cimg alt=\"SakuHitomoshijou (1).JPG\" src=\"../images/thumb/e/ed/SakuHitomoshijou_%281%29.JPG/125px-SakuHitomoshijou_%281%29.JPG\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"125\" height=\"94\" srcset=\"../images/thumb/e/ed/SakuHitomoshijou_%281%29.JPG/188px-SakuHitomoshijou_%281%29.JPG 1.5x, ../images/thumb/e/ed/SakuHitomoshijou_%281%29.JPG/250px-SakuHitomoshijou_%281%29.JPG 2x\" /\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\n\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003C/div\u003E","title":"","link":"","lat":36.03971,"lon":138.53918,"icon":"../images/0/06/Darkred18.png"},{"text":"\u003Cdiv style=\"width:150px\"\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\"/view/File:SakuHitomoshijou_(9).JPG\" class=\"image\"\u003E\u003Cimg alt=\"SakuHitomoshijou (9).JPG\" src=\"../images/thumb/1/17/SakuHitomoshijou_%289%29.JPG/125px-SakuHitomoshijou_%289%29.JPG\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"125\" height=\"167\" srcset=\"../images/thumb/1/17/SakuHitomoshijou_%289%29.JPG/188px-SakuHitomoshijou_%289%29.JPG 1.5x, ../images/thumb/1/17/SakuHitomoshijou_%289%29.JPG/250px-SakuHitomoshijou_%289%29.JPG 2x\" /\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\n\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003C/div\u003E","title":"","link":"","lat":36.04103,"lon":138.54017,"icon":"../images/0/06/Darkred18.png"}],"imageLayers":[]}

Gallery

• 

  Reconstructed Miyagura (Watchtower)
• 
• 
• 
• 

Castle Profile
English Name	Hitomoshi Castle (Saku)
Japanese Name	佐久火燈城
Founder	Aiki Tokie
Year Founded	Sengoku Period
Castle Type	Mountaintop
Castle Condition	No main keep but other buildings
Historical Period	Pre Edo Period
Artifacts	Miyagura, Horikiri, Dorui, Kuruwa
Features	turrets, trenches
Visitor Information
Access	Trail begins from Omika Falls; the nearest station is Saku-Uminokuchi on the Kōmi Line
Visitor Information	24/7 free; mountain
Time Required	50 minutes
Location	Minami-Aiki, Nagano Prefecture
Coordinates	36° 2' 24.47" N, 138° 32' 23.78" E
Loading map... {"type":"TERRAIN","minzoom":false,"maxzoom":false,"types":["ROADMAP","SATELLITE","HYBRID","TERRAIN"],"mappingservice":"googlemaps","width":"auto","height":"200px","centre":false,"title":"","label":"","icon":"Castlemarker.png","lines":[],"polygons":[],"circles":[],"rectangles":[],"copycoords":false,"static":false,"visitedicon":"","wmsoverlay":false,"zoom":6,"layers":[],"controls":[""],"zoomstyle":"DEFAULT","typestyle":"DEFAULT","autoinfowindows":false,"resizable":false,"kmlrezoom":false,"poi":true,"cluster":false,"clustergridsize":60,"clustermaxzoom":20,"clusterzoomonclick":true,"clusteraveragecenter":true,"clusterminsize":2,"imageoverlays":[],"kml":[],"gkml":[],"searchmarkers":"","fullscreen":false,"scrollwheelzoom":false,"locations":[{"text":"","title":"","link":"","lat":36.040130555556,"lon":138.53993888889,"icon":"../images/1/1e/Castlemarker.png"}]}
Admin
Added to Jcastle	2021
Contributor	ART
Admin Year Visited	Viewer Contributed
Friends of JCastle
Yogo
Ranmaru

2.00

(one vote)

Add your comment

Jcastle.info welcomes all comments. If you do not want to be anonymous, register or log in. It is free.

Sort by date Sort by score

Enable comment auto-refresher