En un regard
Le château en bref
Mariko Castle (丸子城, Mariko-jō) stands in the Izumigaya area of the Mariko district, Suruga Ward, Shizuoka. This mountain castle (yamajiro) with successive enclosures occupies a height of 142 metres. It was founded during the Ōei era (1394–1428) by Saitō Yasumoto, a vassal of the Imagawa, to guard the western approach to Sunpu. After the invasion of Suruga in December 1568, the Takeda occupied it; Yamagata Masakage and Yashiro Katsunaga strengthened its defences, the visible earthworks of which probably date mainly from around 1580. A Takeda base facing Tokugawa Ieyasu, it passed to the Tokugawa after 1582; its abandonment is dated to 1582 or placed after 1590, depending on the sources. It is one of the best-preserved earthen castles: banks, dry moats, cross-cutting ditches both vertical and horizontal, a crescent-shaped moat, bent entranceways and rounded outworks typical of the Takeda. The ruins can be explored along hiking trails, with a car park near Seiganji temple.