Kawamura Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture de Kanagawa

Perched on Shiroyama hill, about 150 metres high, south of Yamakita Station in western Kanagawa Prefecture, Kawamura Castle (河村城) is a former mountain castle now laid out as a historical park. Its foundation is attributed, in the late Heian period, to Kawamura Hidetaka, a descendant of Fujiwara no Hidesato. In the 14th century the Kawamura clan, siding with the Southern Court alongside the Nitta, withstood a long siege here by Ashikaga Takauji's troops led by Hatakeyama Kunikiyo. After passing through several lords, the site became part of the Odawara Hōjō network facing the Takeda in the Sengoku period and was strengthened in the 1570s. It fell during Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Odawara campaign in 1590 and was abandoned. No buildings remain, but there is a set of earthworks typical of Hōjō mountain castles: baileys lined up along the ridge, transverse trenches and partitioned moats (unebori), part of which has been restored, as well as the so-called 'Princess Well'. Designated a Kanagawa Prefectural Historic Site in 1996, it can be freely visited on foot.