Sunomata Castle (The Overnight Castle)

Sunomata Castle stands on the bank of the Nagara River in Ogaki, Gifu Prefecture — the site of one of the most celebrated foundation legends in Japanese history. In 1566, during Oda Nobunaga's campaign to conquer Mino Province (present-day Gifu), a low-ranking officer named Kinoshita Tōkichirō — the future Toyotomi Hideyoshi — reportedly built a fort here overnight, a feat that had defeated Nobunaga's senior generals on multiple previous attempts.

The legend holds that Hideyoshi pre-fabricated timber components upstream, floated them down to the site by raft under cover of darkness, and assembled the fort in a single night. Whether the construction truly took one night or several days (modern historians lean toward the latter), the historical record confirms that Hideyoshi accomplished in weeks what his predecessors had failed to do at all — a demonstration of logistical innovation and personal drive that secured Nobunaga's lasting trust. The "overnight castle" story became Japan's defining parable of meritocratic advancement, the tale every aspiring warrior and merchant could recite.

The current castle-shaped building at the site is a 1991 modern reconstruction — not a restoration of the original 1566 timber stockade, which left no surviving structures. The reconstruction houses a history museum documenting the Sengoku period context of the Mino campaigns. The surrounding park preserves the earthwork and moat system of the castle site.

Sunomata occupies a strategically critical position at the confluence of the Kiso Three Rivers (Kiso, Nagara, and Ibi), where the borders of Mino and Owari Province met. Control of this waterway nexus meant control of supply lines between the heartland of Japan's rice-growing plains and the sea approaches to Osaka and Kyoto — which is exactly why Hideyoshi's success here changed the course of the Sengoku period.