Hachiōji Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture de Tokyo

Clinging to the wooded slopes of Mount Fukasawa, west of Tokyo, Hachiōji Castle is often described as one of the last great mountain castles of the Sengoku period. Hōjō Ujiteru, younger brother of the lord of Odawara Hōjō Ujimasa and the clan's leading military commander, made it in the 1580s the most important branch stronghold of the Later Hōjō, leaving his former seat at Takiyama for it. Its life was short: in 1590, during the Odawara campaign, a detached army of Toyotomi Hideyoshi led by Maeda Toshiie and Uesugi Kagekatsu took it in a single day, while Ujiteru and much of the garrison were at Odawara. Abandoned less than ten years after it was built, the fortress has kept a remarkably authentic appearance, which allows archaeologists to date excavated remains precisely. Visitors can see stone walls from the end of the Sengoku period, the site of the lord's residence (Goshuden) with its reconstructed entrance and bridge, and trails leading to the summit. A visitor centre at the foot of the mountain presents the history of the Hōjō.