Marugame Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

Marugame Castle crowns the 66-metre Kameyama hill in central Marugame (Kagawa Prefecture), facing the Seto Inland Sea. It is famous above all for its walls: four superimposed stone terraces rise from the inner moat to the keep, with a combined height of around 60 metres, the greatest in Japan. Their curved profiles recall the sweep of a folding fan. The castle was founded in 1597 by Ikoma Chikamasa and his son Kazumasa, abandoned in 1615, then rebuilt in the 1640s by Yamazaki Ieharu, an experienced castle builder responsible for most of the walls. The three-storey keep was completed in 1660 by Kyōgoku Takakazu, whose family held the castle until 1869; its roof tiles bear the Kyōgoku crest. At about 15 metres high, it is the smallest of the twelve original keeps, but it is one of the few, along with Hirosaki and Kōchi, to have kept its main gate as well.