Ohsaki Castle

History

Ôsakijō is said to have been the castle of Shimizu Moriyoshi, a vassal of the Nishina Clan.

Visit Notes

Ôsakijō sits on a mountain ridge just above a small hydroelectric powerplant. There is a nice switch-back path leading to the top of the ridge for accessing the plant’s reservoir but it is closed to the public. Castle explorers have no option but to assault the mountain head-on, or take a forestry road which runs to the castle from some place in the southwest. I climbed up the slope of the mountain to where the ridge terminates first to reach Ôsakidejō, the site of a satellite fortification of Ôsakijō, and then kept on climbing from there. There is no trail and the ridge has many large boulders.

Ôsakijō features hori (trenches), dorui (earthen ramparts), and kuruwa (baileys). There are at least three bailey groupings along the ridge, and the main bailey complex is situated forward. There are several earthworks around this main bailey area, including on the western slope where there is a very snug and cosy sub-bailey (it’s small, the size of a room) ensconced by dorui. There is a trench below here on the ridge spur. There are at least two trenches along the central ridge. After the final small bailey around the ridge, passing dorui and horikiri (trenches), I came to a flattened area which was clearly part of a forestry road. It’s possible the castle continued here but the ruins have been buried, but I don’t know.

Gallery

Pocket bailey with dorui

Castle Profile
English Name	Ohsaki Castle
Japanese Name	大崎城
Founder	Shimizu Moriyoshi
Year Founded	Sengoku Period
Castle Type	Mountaintop
Castle Condition	Ruins only
Historical Period	Pre Edo Period
Artifacts	Horikiri, Dorui, Kuruwa, &c
Features	trenches
Visitor Information
Access	Climb from Dejō directly or take the old forestry road from the southwest
Visitor Information	Mountain
Time Required	40 minutes
Location	Ômachi, Nagano Prefecture
Coordinates	36° 28' 45.77" N, 137° 49' 40.98" E
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Admin
Added to Jcastle	2022
Contributor	ART
Admin Year Visited	Viewer Contributed
Friends of JCastle
Jōkaku Hōrōki
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