Fujisaki Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture d'Aomori

On an alluvial terrace on the right bank of the Hirakawa River, in the Tsugaru plain, Fujisaki Castle is associated with the origins of the Andō clan, which long dominated northern Honshu and the sea routes to Ezo. Tradition holds that after the Former Nine Years' War (1062), a son of Abe no Sadatō took refuge in Tsugaru and that one of his descendants founded the stronghold at the end of the 11th century, 1092 being the most frequently cited date. A flatland castle without a keep, it consisted of three enclosures separated by moats: a main enclosure of about 83 by 95 metres, a western enclosure bordered by the river and a vast eastern enclosure known as Shinjō. Taken by the Nanbu clan in 1443, long neglected and then restored in 1567, it was abandoned in 1585. No stone walls survive; the layout can still be read in the earthen ramparts and moats, among which now stand an Inari shrine, Hōkō-ji temple and a Hachiman shrine.