Murakami Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture de Niigata

Perched on Mount Gagyū, an isolated hill about 135 metres high overlooking the city of Murakami and the mouth of the Miomote River, Murakami Castle (also called Maizuru-jō) was for several centuries the political centre of northern Echigo Province. Founded around 1500 as a stronghold of the Honjō clan, whose most famous leader, Honjō Shigenaga, withstood Uesugi Kenshin's siege there in 1568-1569, the site was transformed in the late 16th and early 17th centuries into a modern castle with stone walls and a three-storey keep. In 1667 lightning caused a fire that destroyed most of the buildings, which were never rebuilt, and the castle was ruined during the Boshin War in 1868. Today visitors climb the trail to the summit to discover a rare ensemble in which medieval earthworks (terraces, ditches, embankments) overlap with Edo-period stone ramparts up to about eight metres high, as well as the base of the keep. Designated a National Historic Site in 1993, it has been listed among the Continued Top 100 Japanese Castles since 2017 and offers a wide view over the city and the Sea of Japan.