Kuji Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture d'Iwate

Six kilometres west of central Kuji, an isolated hill flanked by two streams bears the remains of the castle of the Kuji clan, a branch related to the Nanbu that dominated the area for several centuries. Its founding date remains unknown, but excavations by the city revealed postholes of raised-floor buildings dated to the 15th century, along with porcelain, a Northern Song Chinese coin, a go stone and a spearhead. The castle's fate turned in 1591: Kuji Naoharu joined Kunohe Masazane's revolt against Nanbu Nobunao and was executed after Kunohe fell to the armies of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The site was dismantled in 1592. Never reoccupied, it remains remarkably legible: a main enclosure on the summit, stepped terraces, dry moats and vertical trenches, all maintained by local residents. Protected by the city since 1973, it became a prefectural historic site in 2022.