Yuzawa Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture d'Akita

Standing on Mount Furudate (古館山), which overlooks the centre of the city of Yuzawa, Yuzawa Castle long guarded the southern part of present-day Akita Prefecture. Tradition attributes its founding, in 1227, to Onodera Michisada, son of Onodera Tsunemichi, whose clan held the Ogachi district from Inaniwa Castle; the scarcity of documents, however, calls for caution about these origins. A frontier stronghold facing south, the fortress became at the end of the 16th century the prize in the rivalry between the Onodera and Mogami Yoshiaki: it fell in 1595 and passed to Tateoka Mitsushige, a Mogami retainer. In 1602, with the redistribution of fiefs, it went to the Satake; Satake Yoshitane, of the Satake Minami branch, settled there and refitted it. The "one province, one castle" edict led to its abandonment in 1620, but the Satake Minami continued to administer the area from their residence at the foot of the hill, on the site of today's city hall. Now the central park, the site preserves a stone marker for the main gate and, below it, the Chikaramizu spring.