Miki Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture de Hyōgo

Set on a plateau overlooking the Mino River in the heart of the city of Miki, Miki Castle was for nearly a century the seat of the Bessho clan, masters of eastern Harima Province. It is best remembered in Japan for one of the most gruelling sieges of the Sengoku period: from 1578 to 1580, Oda Nobunaga's troops under Hashiba Hideyoshi encircled the stronghold with a network of forts and earthen ramparts in order to starve its defenders. The young lord Bessho Nagaharu eventually took his own life to secure the lives of his garrison. No buildings survive today: the former main enclosure has become Uenomaru Park, with a restored section of stone wall, memorials and municipal cultural facilities. The site is also notable for the exceptional set of besiegers' works still visible in the surrounding hills, protected together with the castle as a National Historic Site since 2013 — a rare chance to read on the ground the logic of a late sixteenth-century blockade.