Daishōji Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture d'Ishikawa

Standing on Mount Kinjō, a hill about 70 metres high overlooking the Daishōji River near the former border between Kaga and Echizen provinces, Daishōji Castle was one of the most contested strongholds in Kaga. Attested from the 14th century, it served as a base for the Ikkō-ikki insurgents, fell to Asakura Sōtetsu in 1555, was restored by Shibata Katsuie for Oda Nobunaga, and was then taken by Uesugi Kenshin after the Battle of Tedorigawa in 1577. In 1600 its lord Yamaguchi Munenaga, who had sided with the Western army, resisted Maeda Toshinaga there before taking his own life when the fortress fell. Abandoned in 1615, the site preserves a remarkable set of earthwork fortifications: a honmaru surrounded by five other enclosures laid out along the ridges, earthen ramparts three to four metres high, secondary terraces and dry moats. Now a park, the hill offers a walk among these remains and a view over the town; at the foot of the hill, the Chōryūtei tea pavilion, an Important Cultural Property, recalls the residence of the Daishōji domain founded in 1639.