Tsukiore Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

Tsukiore Castle (月居城), also called Fukuroda Castle, is a mountain castle whose remains crown Mount Tsukiore (404 m), above the famous Fukuroda Falls, in the town of Daigo (Kuji District, Ibaraki Prefecture). According to tradition, it was built during the Ōei era, in the early 15th century, by the Fukuroda family, then went through a period of abandonment after that line died out. After some forty years of occupation by the Shirakawa Yūki from Mutsu, the Satake clan retook the area in 1504 and made the castle a stronghold guarding the northern border of its domain, entrusted in turn to vassal families. It also served as a forward base for the Satake's campaigns to the north. When the Satake were transferred to Akita, the garrison followed its lords and the fortress was abandoned and never rebuilt. In the bakumatsu period, the surroundings of Tsukiore Pass saw fighting between the Tengu faction and the conservative troops of Mito backed by the shogunate. Today only the platforms of the enclosures survive, crossed by a hiking trail linking the pass, the summit and the falls.