Tateyama Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

Shiroyama hill, an isolated rise of 65 metres facing Tateyama Bay, marks the last chapter of one of the great warrior families of Bōsō. After Inamura and Okamoto, the Satomi settled here in 1591, following their setback before Toyotomi Hideyoshi, choosing a seat for its commercial port. The ninth head of the clan, Satomi Yoshiyasu, laid out the merchant town from which the present city derives. The venture was short-lived: in 1614 the tenth head, Satomi Tadayoshi, was banished to Hōki Province and the castle pulled down. Its memory then became literary. With the Nansō Satomi Hakkenden, Kyokutei Bakin turned these warriors into the heroes of a novel, and the tower of 1982 houses prints and editions linked to that popular success: the building is a concrete creation, inspired by Maruoka according to tabi-mag, and the appearance of the vanished tower remains unknown. The twentieth century dealt the site another blow: an anti-aircraft battery installed during the war led to seven metres being shaved off the summit. The excavations of 1978 to 1980 nonetheless found the remains of a palace and the Kashima moat, while a trace of moat survives east of Mount Goryō. The park and municipal museum now present this history on site.