Kanayama Castle

Kanayama Castle (金山城, Kanayama-jō) was a Sengoku period yamashiro-style castle located on top of Mount Kanayama in what is now Ōta, Gunma Prefecture, Japan. The site has been protected as a National Historic Site since 1990. The castle was also known as Ōta Kanayama Castle or as Nitta Kanayama Castle.

Kanayama Castle is located on Mount Kanayama, a 200-meter-tall (660 ft) hill located to the north of central Ōta on the northern edge of the Kantō Plain, with two large rivers, the Tone River and Watarase River on either side. The location is a strategic point commanding the corridor from the eastern provinces to the northwest Kantō region.

Kanayama Castle was built in 1469 by the Iwamatsu clan, local warlords of the area. In 1528, one of their retainers, Yokose Narishige, (his family later changed their name to Yura), seized the castle and overthrew his overlord. The Yura clan expanded their influence in rapidly in Kōzuke Province seizing Kiryū Castle, Ashikaga Castle and Tatebayashi Castle, and rebuilding Kanayama Castle on a large scale. However, the Yura clan was hemmed in by much more powerful neighbors, especially the Uesugi clan to the north and the Hōjō clan to the south. Initially, the Yura pledged fealty to Uesugi Kenshin, but in 1566 changed their allegiance to the Hōjō.

An outraged Kenshin ordered the Satake clan to attack Kanayama in 1574, and participated in the siege himself, but Kanayama Castle withstood the attack. The castle was unsuccessfully attacked again by Takeda Katsuyori in 1580, and Satake Yoshishige in 1583.

In 1584, when Yura Kunishige and his brother Nagao Akinaga, the leaders of the Yura clan, visited Odawara Castle to pay their respects to the Hōjō clan, they were seized in an act of treachery as the Hōjō armies launched a surprise attack against Kanayama. The castle was defended by their mother, Akai Teruko, who at the age of 71, commanded the defenses at the Battle of Kanayama Castle. She led her 3,000 remaining soldiers and resisted over 15 months, and finally surrendered under the condition at the returner captured sons. Kanayama Castle remained in Hōjō hands only a couple of years before it was captured by Maeda Toshiie in 1590 as part of the larger Battle of Odawara in which Toyotomi Hideyoshi destroyed the Hōjō clan. Afterwards, it was never used again and fell into ruins.

Text adapted from “Kanayama Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Kanayama Castle ranks #1,849 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #115 of the 297 mapped in Japan. Founded 1469, it is older than 48% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 434 atlas entries founded in the 15th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 2,963 times in the last 60 days, more than 75% of the atlas. 4 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Tokyo, 75 km away. See how Japan compares in the castle statistics.

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