Kōkokuji Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture de Shizuoka

Set on a spur of the Ashitaka foothills southwest of central Numazu, Kōkokuji Castle guarded the eastern border of the old province of Suruga, facing Izu and the Kantō. It takes its name from a Buddhist temple that once stood on the site and was moved to make room for the fortress. Tradition makes it the first fief of Ise Shinkurō, the future Hōjō Sōun, rewarded at the end of the 15th century for supporting the young Imagawa Ujichika; it was from here that he is said to have set out to conquer Izu in 1491. Contested afterwards by the Imagawa, the Hōjō of Sagami, the Takeda and the Tokugawa, the castle was enlarged by Imagawa Yoshimoto around 1549 and, after Sekigahara, entrusted to Amano Yasukage, whose flight led to the site's abandonment in 1607. Today this National Historic Site preserves a series of enclosures stepped from north to south, earthen ramparts, a presumed keep platform with its stonework and an impressive dry moat some eighteen metres deep behind the main bailey.