Shimo-Akasaka Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture d'Osaka

Shimo-Akasaka Castle ("Lower Akasaka"), officially designated "Akasaka-jō ato", occupies a small rise in the village of Chihaya-Akasaka, on a spur running down from Mount Kongō. It was here that Kusunoki Masashige raised his troops in 1331 in answer to Emperor Go-Daigo's call against the Kamakura shogunate. Tradition says he drove back the attackers with boiling water, double palisades and logs rolled down the slopes, before setting the fort on fire and slipping away by faking his own death. Retaken shortly afterwards, the castle remained a Southern Court base during the wars of the Northern and Southern Courts until it fell in 1360. Few remains survive: the main enclosure lay behind the present village hall, and a stone monument stands behind Chihaya-Akasaka Junior High School. The site overlooks the Shimo-Akasaka terraced rice fields, selected among Japan's hundred finest, and has been a National Historic Site since 1934.