Kagamiyama Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture de Hiroshima

In the heart of the Saijō basin, in Higashihiroshima, Mount Kagamiyama (about 260 to 330 m above sea level) bears the remarkably well-preserved remains of a medieval mountain castle. The stronghold was built in the Muromachi period by the Ōuchi clan, powerful military governors of the provinces of Suō and Nagato, who used it as their foothold to control Aki Province, at the crossroads of the great San'yōdō highway. Its name remains linked to the siege of 1523, when the Amago clan, coming from the north, contested the fortress with the Ōuchi: tradition associates it with the young Mōri Motonari, then serving the Amago and later master of the entire Chūgoku region. No building has survived, but the terrain still reveals the castle's layout: terraced enclosures known locally as "Naka-no-daba" and "Shimo-no-daba", the site of the summit residence, wells and, above all, a series of parallel vertical moats (unejō tatebori) cut into the slopes. Protected as a National Historic Site, it overlooks Kagamiyama Park, famous for its roughly 500 cherry trees.