Shiratori Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture de Toyama

Shiratori Castle (白鳥城) crowns Shiroyama, a 145 m summit and the highest point of the Kureha hills, which divide the Toyama plain from east to west. It is also known as Gofukuyama and Mifukuyama, and its present name probably comes from Shiratori Shrine at the eastern foot of the hill. Chronicles record a camp there by Imai Kanehira, a general of Kiso Yoshinaka, as early as 1183. The surviving works date mainly from the Sengoku period. The Jinbō clan made it the fallback position for their Toyama Castle, and the site later passed to the Uesugi and to the Ikkō-ikki. In 1585 Toyotomi Hideyoshi set up his headquarters here to subdue Sassa Narimasa. Under the Maeda it was garrisoned, then abandoned during the Keichō era. No buildings remain, but the site keeps a remarkable network of earthworks: a summit enclosure surrounded by eighteen enclosures, fourteen gateways and dry moats. Excavations in 1980-1983 uncovered stone-based building foundations and traces of fire. A walking trail now runs through the site.