En un regard
Le château en bref
Kasuga Castle (春日城, Kasuga-jō), also known as Anakoya-jō, stands in the Kasuga district, a former town of Mochizuki, in Saku, Nagano Prefecture. This mountain castle (yamajiro) rises to about 892 metres and stands 125 metres above the former lord's residence. Its foundation, which is undated, is attributed to the Kasuga, a branch of the Nezu active in the Kamakura and Muromachi periods. After their defeat by the Mochizuki, the domain passed to a Kasuga branch allied with them, and then to the Ashida of the Yoda lineage, under Takeda overlordship. In 1582, Yoda Nobushige, an ally of Tokugawa Ieyasu and backed by Sanada Masayuki, made the castle his base for retaking Saku; he died in 1583. The castle was abandoned around 1590. It retains a summit enclosure, several kuruwa, substantial earthworks, cross-ditches and vertical ditches. The lower residence, near Kōkokuji temple, was excavated in 2010–2011. The ruins can be reached by a trail from Horibata.