En un regard
Le château en bref
Perched about thirty metres above the Pacific coast at Urahoro, the Otafunbe chashi is one of the best-preserved witnesses of the Ainu fortifications of eastern Hokkaidō. A small flat-topped mound, about 21 metres by 7, is encircled by ditches that separate it from the surrounding terrain. Its name, "sand whale" in the Ainu language, evokes the shape of the hill and the cetaceans stranded on the neighbouring beach. Built between the 16th and 18th centuries, probably in a context of rivalries between communities and commercial pressure, the site is linked to the oral tradition of a clash between the Ainu of Shiranuka and of Akkeshi. Designated a national historic site in 1981, it has been laid out as a park and offers a panorama of the Pacific.