En un regard
Le château en bref
On a hill at the junction of the Isemoto Kaidō and the Kumano road, Tamaru Castle overlooks the approach to Ise Shrine. Its founding, around 1336, is attributed to Kitabatake Chikafusa and the Southern Court faction; the stronghold fell in 1342. Returned to the Kitabatake, it changed in scale in 1575, when Oda Nobukatsu, second son of Nobunaga who had been adopted into that clan, had moats dug and a three-storey main keep built there, according to accounts that the prefecture reports with caution. The keep burned down in 1580, and Nobukatsu settled at Matsugashima.
After Sekigahara, the Tamaru domain passed to Inaba Michitoshi, and the castle later came under the Kii domain, though sources hesitate between 1616 and 1619. The Kuno, chief councillors of the Tokugawa of Kii, remained responsible for it until the Meiji period, but they seldom resided there. The castle was abandoned in 1869, and most of its buildings were destroyed. What survives are the keep platform, rough stone walls, moats and defensive trenches, while part of the enclosure now houses public facilities. The site has been protected by the prefecture since 1953.
