Azaka Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture de Mie

Standing on a 312-metre summit west of the Ōazaka district of Matsusaka, Azaka Castle offers a wide view over Ise Bay to the east and the mountains of central Mie to the west. It was one of the strongholds of the Kitabatake clan, governors of Ise Province: tradition attributes its foundation to Kitabatake Chikafusa around 1335, and it is attested in the sources from 1352. In 1415, Kitabatake Mitsumasa entrenched himself there against the army of the Muromachi shogunate before the stronghold fell. Its two keeps are also known as Hakumai-jō ("white rice castle") and Shiinoki-jō. The castle is best known for Oda Nobunaga's campaign in Ise: after unsuccessful assaults by Takigawa Kazumasu in 1567, it was taken in 1569 by Kinoshita Tōkichirō, the future Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who was wounded during the attack, and then abandoned. The site consists of two complexes on the ridge, the Nankaku to the south and the Hokkaku to the north, about 250 m apart, where transverse moats, earthen embankments and vertical moats can still be traced. Together with the nearby forts of Takajō and Karatachi-jō, it has been a National Historic Site since 1982 and is reached by a hike of about one hour.