Nakayama Castle (Yamagata)

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture de Yamagata

Perched on a wooded height overlooking the Nakayama district of Kaminoyama, Nakayama Castle guarded the Yonezawa road where it passes between the Yonezawa and Yamagata basins. It was built between the Eiroku and Genki eras (1558-1572) by Nakayama Yatarō, a retainer of Date Terumune, as a forward stronghold facing the Mogami clan. After the Date moved to Iwadeyama in 1590, the castle passed to the Gamō, who installed Gamō Satoyoshi, and then to the Uesugi in 1598, under the command of Yokota Munetoshi. In 1600, during the Dewa campaign, an Uesugi detachment set out from Nakayama and unsuccessfully attacked Kaminoyama Castle, held by the Mogami. The castle was later abandoned, but an administrative post of the Yonezawa domain remained at the foot of the hill until it was abolished in 1870. No buildings survive, yet the summit still preserves a main enclosure ringed by earthen ramparts, the stone base of a keep, stepped terraces and a bent entrance.