Nagano Castle (Ise)

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture de Mie

Nagano Castle occupies a summit of about 520 metres in the mountains west of Tsu, above the Iga road that linked the Ise plain to Iga Province. It was the seat of the Nagano-Kudō, a branch of the Kudō clan settled in northern Ise Province: according to tradition, Kudō Sukefuji founded it in 1274. During the wars between the two courts, the stronghold fell to the Kitabatake in 1346, was retaken by the Kudō in 1352, and then served as a refuge for Niki Yoshinaga, in revolt against the Muromachi shogunate, who held out there for more than two years from 1360. When Oda Nobunaga invaded Ise in 1569, the Nagano agreed to adopt his brother Oda Nobukane; the following year Nobukane moved to Ueno Castle and Nagano was abandoned. On the ridge remain enclosures defined by transverse moats and earthen embankments, a main enclosure bordered by ramparts on three sides and stepped terraces, as well as a stone monument. The National Historic Site "Nagano-shi jōseki", designated in 1982, brings together Nagano Castle and three neighbouring forts, the East, Middle and West castles.