Nanao Castle

Nanao Castle (七尾城, Nanao jō) was a Muromachi period yamajiro-style Japanese castle located in what is now the city of Nanao, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the Hokuriku region of Japan. Its ruins have been protected as a National Historic Site since 1934.

Nanao Castle is located on the southeastern side of Noto Peninsula facing the Sea of Japan. The area was important from the Nara period due to its good port and connections with neighbouring provinces. In 1408, Hatakeyama Mitsunori, from a branch line of the Hatakeyama clan, was appointed governor (shugo) of Noto Province and first constructed a castle at this location around the year 1408. Although the main Hatakeyama clan diminished in power and influence with the growing strength of the Ashikaga clan under the Muromachi shogunate, the Hatakeyama in Noto ruled their area as a semi-independent fief. Hatakeyama Yoshifusa (1491-1545) expanded Nanao Castle into a huge fortress. However, after his death, the Hatakeyama suffered from internal conflicts with the clan and with increasing restive powerful retainers, and problems with the Ikkō-ikki movement.

Nanao Castle is regarded as one of the five largest medieval mountain castles in Japan along with Kasugayama Castle (Niigata Prefecture), Odani Castle and Kannonji Castle (Shiga Prefecture), and Gassantoda Castle (Shimane Prefecture). It is located along the upper slopes of Shiroyama mountain, a 300 meter height south edge of modern city center of Nanao and consisted of several enclosures, each with stone ramparts and dry moats. The central enclosure was at the top of the hill, and could only be reached by passing through the enclosures assigned to important vassals and retainers of the Hatakeyama, which completely surrounded the central enclosure on several concentric levels on the lower slopes. The total size of the fortifications exceeded one square kilometer.

Uesugi Kenshin invaded Noto Province in 1576 just after conquering neighbouring Etchū Province. Kenshin first reduced the branch castles surrounding Nanao Castle in order to isolate the main castle and to protect his lines of communication; however, Nanao Castle proved to be too difficult to capture, and he was forced to retreat. He returned the following year, and laid siege to the castle again.

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

Nanao Castle ranks #2,200 of 8,133 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #134 of the 297 mapped in Japan. Founded 1408, it is older than 52% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 454 atlas entries founded in the 15th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 3,466 times in the last 60 days, more than 78% of the atlas. See how Japan compares in the castle statistics.

View on the interactive castle map →

Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗