Bitchū Takamatsu Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture d'Okayama

Bitchū Takamatsu Castle, of which only a peaceful park dotted with lotus ponds now remains north-west of Okayama, was the scene of one of the most unusual sieges in Japanese history. Built before the Tenshō era by the Ishikawa family, vassals of the Mimura clan, it was a lowland castle set amid marshes that served as natural moats, with no stone walls but raised earthworks. Held for the Mōri clan by Shimizu Muneharu, it was besieged in 1582 by Hashiba Hideyoshi. On the advice of Kuroda Kanbei, Hideyoshi had a long dike raised in about twelve days and diverted the Ashimori River: the seasonal rains turned the plain into a lake and isolated the fortress. On learning of Oda Nobunaga's death at Honnō-ji, Hideyoshi negotiated a swift peace whose condition was Muneharu's suicide, which he carried out aboard a boat in full view of both armies. The site, protected since 1929, has a small free museum, the grave of Muneharu's head and, at Kawazugahana, the remains of the dike.