Nasu Kanda Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture de Tochigi

Nasu Kanda Castle, in the Miwa district of the town of Nakagawa, is regarded as the cradle of the Nasu clan, one of the great warrior families of northern Shimotsuke. It is said to have been established around 1125, at the end of the Heian period, by Fujiwara no Sukeie, also known as Sudō Gon-no-kami Sadanobu, ancestor of the Nasu. Four generations of the family, which then bore the name Sudō, lived here before moving to Inazumi Castle and then Takadate Castle. Local tradition places here the birth in 1169 of Nasu no Yoichi, the archer made famous by his shot at the fan during the Battle of Yashima. Rather than a fortress, the site is a large fortified lordly residence on the plain, with a rectangular single-enclosure plan: the inner enclosure of about 117 by 66 metres is surrounded by an earthen rampart up to five metres high and by water-filled moats on the north and south. Designated a National Historic Site in 1984, the complex has remarkably well-preserved ramparts, on which stands a small Inari shrine, despite the loss of part of the eastern side.