Katsuyama Castle (Shimotsuke)

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture de Tochigi

Katsuyama Castle, also known as Ujiie Castle, stands on a terrace overlooking the left bank of the Kinugawa River in the Ujiie district of Sakura City, in the heart of Tochigi Prefecture. Founded at the end of the 12th century by Ujiie Kimiyori, a branch of the powerful Utsunomiya house, it later passed to the Haga and, after the Muromachi period, became one of the northern bulwarks of the Utsunomiya domain against the lords of northern Shimotsuke. It is a medieval castle without stonework that makes use of the natural relief: three earthen enclosures arranged in an L around a main bailey of about 80 by 70 metres, protected by a dry moat some fifteen metres wide and by earthen ramparts rising 7 to 8 metres above the moat floor. Abandoned in 1597 when Toyotomi Hideyoshi stripped the Utsunomiya of their lands, the site is today Katsuyama Park, which surrounds the Sakura City Museum. The moats and ramparts of the main bailey remain clearly visible beneath broadleaf woodland, with views over the Kinugawa, the Nikko mountains and Mount Takahara.