Wakasa Onigajō Castle
若桜鬼ヶ城
Wakasa Onigajō Castle is a historic castle in the Chūgoku region (Traditionally founded after 1200 (Shōji 2) by Yabe Terutane; abandoned in 1617 (Genna 3) under the one-castle-per-domain edict). Its lord was Yabe Terutane (founder); the Yabe clan; Kinoshita Shigekata; Yamazaki Iemori and Ieharu.
Overview
Overview
Wakasa Onigajō Castle was a mountain castle built on Mount Tsuruo (452m) in Wakasa Town, Yazu District, Tottori Prefecture. Positioned at the junction of roads leading to Harima and Tajima provinces in eastern Inaba Province, it was a strategically vital stronghold repeatedly contested from the medieval period into the early Edo period.
History and Succession of Lords
The castle is traditionally said to have been built sometime after 1200 (Shōji 2) by Yabe Terutane, and the Yabe clan subsequently governed the area from the Kamakura period through the end of the Sengoku period. During the Sengoku period it became a battleground contested by the Amago, Mōri, and Oda forces; in June 1575 (Tenshō 3), the castellan, a member of the Yabe clan, was captured through a stratagem by Yamanaka Yukimori (Shikanosuke), and the castle fell into the hands of the Amago restoration army. Yamanaka and his allies resisted an attack by Kikkawa Motoharu that same year but abandoned the castle and withdrew the following year. The castle then became a forward base for the Oda forces under Hashiba Hideyoshi as they advanced into Inaba Province; after Hideyoshi's siege of Tottori Castle in 1581 (Tenshō 9), Kinoshita Shigekata took up residence with a fief of 20,000 koku, and following the Battle of Sekigahara, Yamazaki Iemori entered with 30,000 koku, with the Yamazaki clan holding the castle through the generation of Yamazaki Ieharu. The castle was abandoned in 1617 (Genna 3) under the shogunate's one-castle-per-domain edict.
Structure
A renkaku-shiki (linear-enclosure) mountain castle, with the main, second, and third enclosures arranged in terraces at the summit. From the tenshu platform, the roads extending toward Tajima and Harima provinces are visible in a single sweep, underscoring the castle's position at a strategic crossroads. Surviving features include a masugata (box-shaped) gate ringed by stone walls, as well as a "corridor bridge gate" (rōka-bashi koguchi) rare nationwide and a unique "dead-end gate" (ikidomari koguchi) found nowhere else in Japan. While most of the stonework at the summit was deliberately dismantled, a hexagonal stone wall surviving north of the main enclosure — built with distinctively obtuse-angled joints — remains largely intact and is believed to predate the summit ruins, possibly used during the medieval period as a lookout post.
Present Condition
The site was designated a National Historic Site on March 28, 2008, and was selected as No. 168 in the Continuation of the 100 Fine Castles of Japan in 2017. The view of the stone walls rising above the townscape of the former Wakasa post town at the foot of the mountain is considered a rare sight nationally. The site can be reached via a 16-minute walk from Wakasa Station on the Wakasa Railway Wakasa Line to the trailhead, followed by about a 50-minute climb to the main enclosure at the summit.
Connection to Swords
Highlights
- Traditionally founded after 1200 by Yabe Terutane at a strategic crossroads in eastern Inaba Province
- Briefly seized in 1575 through a stratagem by Yamanaka Yukimori (Shikanosuke)
- Features a nationally rare "corridor bridge gate" and a unique "dead-end gate" found nowhere else in Japan
- A hexagonal stone wall north of the main enclosure, believed to be a medieval-era structure
- Designated a National Historic Site in 2008; selected as No. 168 in the Continuation of the 100 Fine Castles of Japan
* Opening hours and admission fees are subject to change. Please check the official website before visiting.