- Type
- Castle
- Origins
- 1479 · 15th century per Wikidata: founding, first mention or construction
- Location
- Saitama Prefecture, Japan
- Coordinates
- 36.1371°, 139.4530°
History
The Narita clan built the castle around 1479, using islets and natural levees in vast wetlands between the Tone and Ara rivers. In 1590, during Toyotomi Hideyoshi's campaign against the Hōjō, some 3,000 people – samurai, peasants and townsfolk – held it against Ishida Mitsunari's army. Ishida, who made his camp on the nearby Maruhakayama burial mound, had dykes some 28 kilometres long raised to drown the stronghold with the waters of the Tone. The plan failed – tradition says the water broke through the embankment and flooded the besiegers' camp – and the castle opened its gates only after Odawara had fallen. In the Edo period it was the seat of the Oshi domain, ruled in turn by branches of the Matsudaira clan and by the Abe, who enlarged the castle from 1639. The buildings were dismantled after the Meiji Restoration, and in 1988 a three-storey turret was rebuilt as part of a museum.
What to see
The reconstructed white turret stands on the site of the main enclosure, surrounded by a moat and park, and together with the neighbouring building forms the Gyōda city history museum. Its displays cover the castle, the 1590 siege and the making of tabi socks, for which the town was known from the late Edo period. A stretch of Ishida's dyke survives in the Ishida-zutsumi historic park, and the Sakitama burial mounds are not far away.
Wikipedia article Wikidata Q1074393
Popularity: articles about this site in 14 Wikimedia projects (Wikipedia language editions and others).