En un regard
Le château en bref
Dota Castle (土田城, Dota-jō) lies in the Dota district of Kani, in Gifu Prefecture. This mountain castle (yamajiro) served as a refuge castle (tsumejō). It occupies an isolated hill of about 181 metres in elevation, which rises 110 metres above the land to the east and is protected by the Kani and Yamaza rivers. It is said to have been built by the Dota clan during the Bunmei era (1469-1487), and the castle records attribute it to Dota Yoshihisa. After Dota Gentayū died at Akechi Castle in 1556, Chikashige and then Chikamasa, who were linked to the Ikoma clan, became its lords. Ikoma Chikamasa left the castle in 1574, a date generally taken as the time of its abandonment. Relatively small and designed as a wartime refuge, it was supplemented by the lords' residences established to the north, in the Ōwaki district. Earthen embankments, moats and stonework are recorded there. The wooded ruins can be discovered on foot, by way of steep paths, from the Ōwaki community centre.