Sannohe Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

Sannohe Castle stretches along an isolated river terrace, about 1.7 kilometres long on its main axis and rising to around 130 metres above sea level, some 90 metres above the town. This terrain gave it natural protection on all sides. The principal residence of the Sannohe Nanbu at the end of the Middle Ages, the site covers 316,027 square metres of designated land. The layout visible today dates mostly from the early seventeenth century: levelled platforms, bounded by moats, earthworks and stone walls, line a main route that passes successively through the Tsuna, Hato and Keyaki gates before the great gate leading to the Honmaru. The municipal account places the Nanbu move to this height in 1539, after their Shōjuji residence burned down under Nanbu Harumasa; ceramics found on site show, however, that the location was already in use in the fifteenth century. Recognised in 1590 as the residence of Nanbu Nobunao, master of the seven Nanbu districts, the castle lost its central role first to Fukuoka and then to Morioka. It remained under a governor until the post was abolished in the Jōkyō era, after which it passed to a maintenance intendant. Fifteen survey campaigns between 2004 and 2019 revealed two main phases of stone walling, the foundations of the great gate, a canal in the blacksmiths' quarter and a well. The site is now a park, where a modern keep-shaped building serves as a museum.