Iwadeyama Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture de Miyagi

Set on a hill overlooking the Eai valley and the small town of Iwadeyama, now part of Ōsaki, this earthwork castle was for a decade the seat of Date Masamune's power. Originally known as Iwatesawa, it belonged to the Ujiie clan, retainers of the Ōsaki. After Toyotomi Hideyoshi reorganised northern Japan, Masamune was transferred to the former Kasai and Ōsaki domains in 1591. Tokugawa Ieyasu, then in charge of surveying the region, stayed there for about forty days and had the defences remodelled; the site then took the name Iwadeyama. Masamune lived here until he moved to Sendai in 1601, after which the castle became the residence of the Iwadeyama-Date branch, founded by his fourth son Munetaka, until the Meiji Restoration. No buildings remain, but the stepped terraces, earthen embankments, large dry moat and trenches cutting across the ridge are still clearly legible. The summit is now Shiroyama Park, where a statue of Masamune stands, while at the foot of the cliff the Yūbikan, the former domain school and its garden, forms a remarkable historic ensemble.