Oka Castle

Oka Castle (岡城, Oka-jō) was a Sengoku to Edo period yamajiro-style Japanese castle located in the city of Taketa, Ōita Prefecture, Japan. Its ruins have been protected as a National Historic Site since 2023.

Oka Castle is located on the top of Tenjinyama, a long hill to the east of the urban center of Taketa, which is situated in a small basin in the southwestern part of Bungo Province. It is at a crossroads of various roads crisscrossing the island of Kyushu and because of its geographical position, occupies an important strategic point controlling western Bungo Province. The site is flanked by two rivers, the Inaba River and the Tamaki River, tributaries of the Ōno River, which merge just to the east of the castle. The fortifications spread at the narrow east part of the hill, which has an elevation of 325 meters above sea level, and 95 meters above its surroundings. The castle extended 2500 meters from east-to-west and 362 meters from north-to-south.

It is uncertain when this location was fortified. According legend, it was constructed by Ogata Koreyoshi in 1185, and was gifted to Minamoto no Yoshitsune to be a stronghold against his brother, Minamoto no Yoritomo. After the death of Yoshitsune, the Ogata clan was exiled and their territories given to the Ōtomo clan, who has been sent as shugo of the province by the Kamakura shogunate. Shiga Sadatomo, from one of the three major cadet branches of the Ōtomo clan, expanded the fortifications in 1334 and renamed it "Oka Castle". On the other hand, the Bungo no Kunishi states that the Shiga clan entered this area only after 1364 and make Kimure Castle their stronghold, with no mention of Oka Castle, so this history remains uncertain.

Under the Shiga clan, Oka Castle served to protect Bungo against the Kikuchi clan in Higo Province. By the Sengoku period, the Ōtomo came to rule most of northern Kyushu. but under Ōtomo Sōrin were defeated by the Shimazu clan at the Battle of Mimikawa and other locations in Hyuga Province in 1578. By 1585, the Shimazu had burned the Ōtomo capital at Funai (modern Oita city) and a large army led by Shimazu Yoshihiro marched towards Oka Castle. Although many of the Ōtomo retainers defected to the Shimazu banner, Shiga Chikatsugu decided to resist and his 2000 men held Oka Castle successfully against a Shimazu army numbering over 30,000 men until the arrival of Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

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

Oka Castle ranks #2,107 of 8,133 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #129 of the 297 mapped in Japan. Founded 1185, it is older than 80% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 563 atlas entries founded in the 12th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 4,066 times in the last 60 days, more than 81% of the atlas. The nearest day-trip guide is Kumamoto, 68 km away. It is one of the 37 landmarks on the atlas's regional map of Kyushu. See how Japan compares in the castle statistics.

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