- Type
- Ruin
- Origins
- c. 1520 · 16th century per Wikidata: founding, first mention or construction
- Location
- Shiga Prefecture, Japan
- Coordinates
- 35.4592°, 136.2769°
History
The castle on the ridge of Mount Odani in northern Ōmi province was built in the 1520s by Azai Sukemasa, who had broken free of his former overlords, the Kyōgoku. It was the seat of three generations of the Azai. Azai Nagamasa married Oichi, sister of Oda Nobunaga, but in 1570 he sided with the Asakura against his brother-in-law and was defeated that same year at the Battle of Anegawa. In 1573, after crushing the Asakura, Nobunaga's army surrounded the castle; Hashiba Hideyoshi seized the central Kyōgoku-maru enclosure, cutting the defenders off from one another. Hisamasa and Nagamasa took their own lives, and the castle passed to Hideyoshi, who soon moved to his new castle at Nagahama.
What to see
A trail from the foot of the mountain leads through a chain of enclosures along the ridge: Banshoyama, the broad Ōhiroma, Honmaru, Kyōgoku-maru and Komaru, up to Yamaō-maru at the top. Earthworks, ditches and stretches of stone wall survive, and the viewpoints look out over the Kohoku plain and Lake Biwa. A small museum at the foot of the mountain tells the story of the castle and the Azai clan.
Wikipedia article Wikidata Q2436937
Popularity: articles about this site in 12 Wikimedia projects (Wikipedia language editions and others).