Takatama Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

Takatama Castle (高玉城), often called Takatama-date or the "fortified manor of Takatama", is a Sengoku-period castle site in the Atami area, west of the city of Kōriyama in Fukushima Prefecture, near the Bandai-Atami interchange. Its founding date is unknown. Between the Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods it served as the fortified residence of the Takatama family, a cadet branch of the Nihonmatsu. Its history centres on a dramatic episode: in 1589, during Date Masamune's offensive against the Ashina clan, the castle was assaulted by Katakura Kagetsuna, one of Masamune's chief retainers. The stronghold fell, its lord Takatama Tsuneyori died in combat, and Masamune ordered the massacre of all its occupants, soldiers included, as he had done four years earlier at Otemori Castle. The episode belongs to the campaign in which the Date seized Aizu that same year. Today a stele marks the site along Prefectural Route 24, near a small Shinto shrine (高司神社), while the hill above it retains landforms interpreted as former moats and earthworks.