Karakai Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture de Tokyo

Karakai Castle (辛垣城, sometimes read Karagaki) crowns the summit of Mount Karakai, a steep knoll detached from the ridge of Mount Raiden, north-west of Ōme, in the hills bordering the Tama valley west of Tokyo. This mountain castle was built around 1558 by Mita Tsunahide, head of the Mita clan, whose main residence was then Katsunuma Castle, lower down in the valley. When Uesugi Kenshin invaded the Kantō in 1560, the Mita abandoned their alliance with the Hōjō to join his side; after Kenshin withdrew, they entrenched themselves on this hard-to-reach height. In 1563 the troops of Hōjō Ujiteru took the stronghold and ended the clan's power. The site, partly cut away by a stone quarry in the Edo period, preserves the edges of the summit enclosure, several small terraced enclosures and a large ridge-cutting moat. Today it is reached by hiking trails from stations on the JR Ōme Line.