Yoshida-Kōriyama Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture de Hiroshima

On Mount Kōriyama (about 400 m) at Yoshida, in present-day Akitakata, Yoshida-Kōriyama Castle was for more than two and a half centuries the seat of the Mōri clan, and the base from which Mōri Motonari extended his power over almost the whole Chūgoku region. The clan, installed as stewards of the Yoshida estate, established its stronghold here from 1336 under Mōri Tokichika. In 1523 Motonari, who had just inherited the clan, left Tajihi-Sarukake Castle for Kōriyama and turned the old stronghold into a fortress covering the entire mountain: by the mid-16th century some 270 to 300 terraces radiated from the summit over about 1.1 km east to west and 0.9 km north to south, making it one of the largest mountain castles of the Sengoku period. In 1540-1541 Motonari withstood here the siege of an Amago army of some 30,000 men and drove it back. His grandson Terumoto, born in the castle in 1553, moved to Hiroshima in 1591, and Kōriyama was abandoned. The site, a National Historic Site since 1940, preserves its terraces, fragments of stone walls and, at its foot, Motonari's tomb. A trail reaches the summit in about forty minutes; the castle is listed among Japan's Top 100 Castles.