Hiyama Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

Hiyama Castle was born of the reconquest of a clan driven from the north. The Andō, first established in Tsugaru, were defeated by the Nanbu during the troubles of the Kakitsu era and fell back towards Ezo; Andō Masasue returned southward in 1456 and took up position in the Hiyama area. Construction, begun in his time, is said to have been completed in 1495 under his son Tadasue, a date handed down by tradition and repeated by institutional sources. Set on a horseshoe-shaped ridge that serves as a natural defence, the castle extends about 1,500 m east to west and 900 m north to south, without a keep or stone walls. It became the seat of a power opposed to the Minato branch of the Andō. In 1589 Sanesue withstood a siege of about 150 days here, an episode whose figures belong to the transmitted account. The family then took the name Akita and remained at Hiyama until 1598 according to the national record. After the Satake moved to Akita, vassals of that clan administered the site, and the castle was abandoned in 1620 according to the prefecture, following the edict limiting each domain to a single castle. The ensemble designated in 1980 links the castle with two secondary residences, Ōdate and Chausu-date, and with the funerary temple 国清寺. Excavations at Ōdate and Chausu-date from 1971 revealed earlier settlements there, from the 10th and 11th centuries.