Odaka Castle (Minamisōma)

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture de Fukushima

Set on a modest hill rising barely ten metres above the plain, Odaka Castle was for nearly two and a half centuries the heart of Sōma power, lords of Namegata District in the former province of Mutsu. Born amid the turmoil of the Northern and Southern Courts period, it was already contested in 1336, when supporters of the Southern Court led by Kitabatake Akiie seized it, before it was retaken the following year. Its defenders relied above all on water: the Odaka River to the south and the marshes to the west and north isolated it so well that it was nicknamed the "floating boat castle". Too cramped to serve as a domain capital, it was abandoned in 1611 in favour of Nakamura. The main plateau is now home to the Sōma Odaka Shrine, where each summer the Sōma Nomaoi festival closes with the ritual capture of horses by bare hands. A dry moat cut into the ridge, earthen ramparts and a former defensive pond still recall its military purpose.