En un regard
Le château en bref
The Katsuragaoka chashi lies in Abashiri, at the tip of a hill now forming part of the park of the same name, right next to the municipal local history museum. The term chashi refers to Ainu enclosures set on high ground; this one is assigned to the early modern period by a local tourism presentation, and no more precise dating was found in the sources consulted. The national record describes a place made defensible by dug moats and earthen banks, and still notes two or three depressions corresponding to former pit dwellings. The site's built form can thus be read first of all in its earthworks, starting from a hill terrain cut across by the moats.
Its function was not limited to defence. The available presentations also describe it as a place of exchange, ceremonies and negotiation, known as charanke, and the national record reports that the Ainu used the name Charanke-chashi, which it associates with two neighbouring hollows, one large and one small. The sources consulted do not make it possible to distribute these uses over time, and the respective weight of defence and communal life remains to be established for this site. Designated a national historic site on 24 December 1935, the place has been managed by the city of Abashiri since 4 April 1936.
