Izushi Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

At the foot of Mount Ariko, Izushi Castle replaced the hilltop fortress that the Yamana had built some thirty years earlier, after the loss of Konosumiyama, around 1604. Koide Yoshihide then gave up the heights and arranged his enclosures in terraces above the plain, forming the core of a castle town whose Edo-period layout is still legible. His line held the domain for roughly a century; the Matsudaira succeeded them in 1697, and the Sengoku in 1706, who remained until the abolition of the domains in 1871. The buildings disappeared after the Meiji Restoration. What remains are the stone walls, the inner moats and the stepped terraces. The corner tower visible today dates from 1968, while the gate and access bridge were rebuilt in 1994: these are modern reconstructions. Higher up, an avenue of some forty red torii leads to Ariko-yama Inari Shrine, from which a steep path climbs to the summit. Rough-stone walls and the vast Senjōjiki terrace there recall Arikoyama Castle, which was designated a National Historic Site together with Konosumiyama in 1996.