Danpū Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

Danpū Castle (檀風城, also written 壇風城) is a flatland castle site in central Sado Island, in the Takeda district (former town of Mano), next to the present Sado police station. It occupies a small tongue-shaped plateau, and tradition places here the first fortified residence of the Honma, a warrior family from Sagami that served the Kamakura shogunate as deputy governors (shugodai) of the island. It is also called Sawata moto-jō, the "former Sawata Castle". According to tradition, the courtier Hino Suketomo, exiled to Sado in 1325 after the Shōchū Incident and executed in 1332, was held here; a poem he is said to have composed here supposedly gave the castle its name. In the early 16th century the main Honma line built Sawata Castle on the neighbouring heights, and it is unknown whether Danpū remained in use. The plateau, now farmland, preserves only a levelled surface; the road below may follow the line of a former moat. The spot, also considered a possible location of the ancient provincial office (kokuga) of Sado, was the subject of emergency excavations published in 1966 by the town of Mano. A stele and a sign from the city board of education mark the site.