Explore Japanese History: Castles, Sengoku Period & Battlefields

Moss-covered corner of the stone wall at Takatori Castle

Japanese Castles

A Japanese castle is a whole system: mountain or river, stone walls, gates arranged to slow an attacker, and a town laid out at its feet. The keep is only the most visible part.

Castles in Japan evolved from medieval mountain strongholds of earth and timber into the stone-walled fortresses of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Most were dismantled after the shogunate's one-castle-per-province order of 1615 or after the Meiji government's abolition of castles in 1873, and many survivors were lost in the Second World War.

Only twelve keeps survive from before the modern era. Inuyama, just north of Nagoya, is one of them. Elsewhere, what remains is often more revealing than a keep: walls, moats, and the shape of the ground itself.

The Sengoku Period

For roughly a century after the Ōnin War of 1467, central authority in Japan collapsed and regional lords fought for survival. Aichi, the old provinces of Owari and Mikawa, was at the centre of how that age ended.

The three men who reunified Japan all came from this region. Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi were born in Owari, and Tokugawa Ieyasu in neighbouring Mikawa. Within a short distance of Nagoya are the castles they held, the fields where they fought, and the towns they built or abandoned.

We approach the period through specific places and decisions rather than legend. Where sources disagree, as they often do, we say so.

Historical Figures

Behind every wall is a person who ordered it built. Nobunaga, Hideyoshi and Ieyasu are only the best known. The builders, the retainers and the families who held a castle for generations matter just as much.

Some of the most revealing stories belong to less famous figures: Honda Toshihisa, who rebuilt Takatori on its mountain; Tokugawa Yoshinao, the first lord of Nagoya; the Naruse family, who held Inuyama for two and a half centuries.

Understanding a site means understanding what its people wanted, feared and could afford.

Battlefields & Forgotten Places

Many of the places where Japanese history turned are now fields, suburbs or forested hills. Without context they are easy to pass by. With it, the landscape becomes legible.

At Okehazama, two cities still disagree about where Imagawa Yoshimoto fell. At Kiyosu, an entire castle town was moved away. On Mount Takatori, kilometres of stone walls stand in the forest with no buildings left above them.

These are the places we find most rewarding to explain, because what is missing is part of the story.

Japan's Architectural Heritage

Stone walls laid without mortar, curved to shed attackers and earthquakes. Timber keeps assembled without nails. Roof ornaments meant to guard against fire. Castle architecture rewards close looking.

Stone-wall techniques changed over time, from rough-laid natural stones to closely cut and fitted blocks, and an experienced eye can often date a wall by how it was built. At Nagoya, the crews who built the walls carved identifying marks into the stones, and many can still be found.

The shachihoko, the mythical fish placed on castle roofs as a charm against fire, became the symbol of Nagoya. It is also the emblem of Kagemori.

Explore the history

Japanese Castles

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The Sengoku Period

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Historical Figures

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Battlefields & Forgotten Places

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Japan's Architectural Heritage

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