Katakura Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture de Tokyo

At the eastern end of the Kobiki hills, south of Hachiōji, Katakura Castle (片倉城) stretches over a spur enclosed by the Yudono River and one of its tributaries, whose cliffs rise some thirty metres above the valleys. This land, long held by the Yokoyama warrior band, passed to Ōe no Hiromoto in 1213; the fortification is later associated with his descendants, the Nagai, vassals of the Ōgigayatsu Uesugi, although the identity of the builder remains unsettled. Under the Odawara Hōjō, the site served as an outwork near Takiyama and Hachiōji castles: in 1569 Hōjō Ujiteru and Hōjō Ujikuni set out from here for the Battle of Mimasetoge. It fell in 1590 together with Hachiōji. Its surprisingly elaborate layout combines a main bailey and a second bailey separated by a cranked dry moat, tower platforms, earthen ramparts and a double forecourt at the south-east entrance. Laid out as a park by the city in 1971 and designated a Tokyo Metropolitan Historic Site in 1999, it is also famous for its cherry trees and carpets of katakuri (dogtooth violets) in spring.