Ashikaga Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

Perched on Mount Ryōgai (Ryōgaisan, 251 m), in the wooded hills overlooking the city of Ashikaga to the north, Ashikaga Castle is a mountain castle (yamajiro) not to be confused with the fortified residence of the Ashikaga, built on the plain around Bannaji temple. Tradition attributes its foundation, around 1054, to Ashikaga Narimoto (Nariyuki), head of the branch of the Ashikaga descended from the Fujiwara, heirs of Fujiwara no Hidesato. Yet the castle as it can be pictured today owes most of its layout to the 16th century: at the end of the 15th century the Nagao, lieutenants of the Yamanouchi Uesugi, moved their seat to this old position, which they held for nearly a century amid the struggles between the Uesugi, Hōjō and Sano. Having sided with the Hōjō, the clan lost everything in 1590 with the fall of Odawara, and the castle was abandoned. No buildings remain, but the ridge preserves cut ditches (horikiri) and remains of stone walls. Designated a historic site by the city of Ashikaga, the place is now discovered on foot, along the trail linking Mount Gyōdō to the Orihime shrine.