Arikoyama Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture de Hyōgo

Arikoyama Castle crowns a summit of about 321 metres overlooking, to the south, the small town of Izushi, in what is now the city of Toyooka. It was built around 1574 by Yamana Suketoyo, head of a clan that had been one of the most powerful houses of military governors in the Muromachi period, after the fall of his previous stronghold, nearby Konosumiyama Castle. The chosen name is said to have served to ward off the bad omen attached to the former site. Taken in 1580 by the troops of Toyotomi Hideyoshi led by his brother Hidenaga, the stronghold then became the seat of lords serving the Toyotomi, who gave it stone walls characteristic of the Azuchi-Momoyama period. The site thus illustrates the transition from the medieval mountain castle to the early modern castle. Abandoned in the early 17th century in favour of Izushi Castle, built at the foot of the mountain, it retains on the ridge a summit enclosure, stepped terraces, the vast platform known as Senjōjiki, sections of stone walls and moats.