Ōhasama Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

Ōhasama Castle (大迫城), also called Furudate, Ukon-date or Keirinji-date, is a medieval mountain castle in the former town of Ōhasama, now part of the city of Hanamaki in Iwate Prefecture. It occupies the end of a hill south of Keirin-ji temple, a position that commanded communications towards eastern Waga, Tōno, the banks of the Kitakami and Shiwa. The site, about 200 metres across, consists of stepped enclosures: belt terraces encircle the western, southern and northern slopes, and the ridge is cut by transverse ditches. It was the seat of the Ōhasama family, vassals of the Hienuki, who held the area from the Muromachi period until the end of the civil wars. The fall of the Hienuki during Toyotomi Hideyoshi's reorganisation of northern Japan in 1591 led to the exile of its last lord; the castle is listed among the strongholds dismantled in 1592. It was briefly reoccupied during the Iwasaki uprising of 1600, after which the site housed an intendant's office. Only earthworks remain today.