Uto Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture de Kumamoto

The Uto Castle described here is the medieval castle on the Nishioka plateau, an isolated hill south-west of central Uto, at the base of the Uto Peninsula, an important crossroads of the former province of Higo. First held by the Uto clan, it passed in the early 16th century to the Nawa clan, descendants of the famous Nawa Nagatoshi, who remained its masters until Toyotomi Hideyoshi's conquest of Kyūshū in 1587. It should not be confused with the castle built by Konishi Yukinaga from 1588 on the small Shiroyama hill, about 500 metres to the east, which is not included in the designated site. The hill has two levelled summits, Senjōjiki to the east, the main enclosure, and Sanjō to the west, arranged in a row and defended by horizontal moats, vertical moats on the slopes, a bent entrance and a gate. Excavations have revealed medieval post-built structures and Chinese ceramics of the 15th and 16th centuries, as well as Kofun-period stone-cist burials. Designated a National Historic Site in 1979, the site has been laid out as a historical park where buildings, palisades and a gate have been partially reconstructed.