Moto Sakura Castle

Moto Sakura Castle (本佐倉城, Motosakura-jō) was a Muromachi period "hirayama"-style castle located on the border of the town of Shisui and the city of Sakura, Chiba Prefecture, Japan. Its ruins been protected as a National Historic Site since 1998.

Motosakura Castle was located on a long and narrow hill with an elevation of 30 meters, some two kilometers to the east of the Edo period Sakura Castle. When it was built in the Muromachi period, the castle was on the shore of the Gulf of Kashima, which extended into present-day Lake Kasumigaura, Lake Teganuma and Lake Inbanuma, and which formed the border between Shimōsa Province and Hitachi Province. The road between the political capital of Kamakura and the city of Chōshi on the Pacific coast and the mouth of the Tone River also passed through this location. The castle was approximately 800 meters in length by 700 meters in width and was roughly L-shaped, utilizing the surrounding marshlands on three sides as a major component of its defenses.

This area was the home territory of the Chiba clan, one of the eight most powerful samurai clans in the Kantō region during the late Heian period. Chiba Tsunetane was an early supporter of Minamoto no Yoritomo and under the Kamakura shogunate was awarded most of Shimōsa and Kazusa Provinces. However, after the fall of the Kamakura shogunate, the clan fragmented due to internal conflicts and lost most of its power and influence. By the middle of the 15th century, they had been reduced to vassals of their former retainers, the Hara clan.

Makuwari Yasutane attacked Chiba castle, defeating the Chiba clan in 1455. He took the Chiba name, and the family continued to rule in the area, with Motosakura Castle was built by Chiba Suketane in 1469 under these reduced circumstances, and was gradually enlarged by his successors. However, they were only a small player surrounded by powerful and aggressive neighbors, such as the Satake clan from Hitachi and the Satomi clan from Awa Province at the southern end of the Bōsō Peninsula, as well as the fluctuating authority of the Ashikaga clan who still nominally ruled eastern Japan via the Kantō kubō. The Chiba clan survived through an alliance with the Odawara-based Hōjō clan. With Hōjō support, Chiba Tanetomi (1527-1579) repeatedly defeated attacked by Uesugi Kenshin and by the Satomi clan.

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

Moto Sakura Castle ranks #5,201 of 8,134 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #250 of the 297 mapped in Japan. Founded c. 1500, it is older than 45% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 455 atlas entries founded in the 15th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,476 times in the last 60 days, more than 59% of the atlas. 1 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Chiba, 19 km away. See how Japan compares in the castle statistics.

View on the interactive castle map →

Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗