Shōryūji Castle

Shōryūji Castle (勝龍寺城, Shōryūji-jō) is a castle in Nagaokakyō, Kyoto, Japan.

This castle was constructed in 1339 by Hosokawa Yoriharu, a major samurai commander under Ashikaga Takauji, the founder of the Ashikaga shogunate.

The area around the castle is a strategic foothold to defend Kyoto, the capital of Japan at that time, from western threats. During the Ōnin War, this castle was used as a castle of the western alliance and became occupied by Iwanari Tomomichi, a daimyō of the Miyoshi clan, during the Sengoku period. The castle fell to Oda Nobunaga in 1568, and was given to Hosokawa Fujitaka, who occupied it until 1579.

At the battle of Yamazaki between Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Akechi Mitsuhide, following Mitsuhide's killing of Nobunaga, this castle's garrison collapsed, forcing Mitsuhide to flee to his death.

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

Shōryūji Castle ranks #2,417 of 8,134 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #145 of the 297 mapped in Japan. Founded 1339, it is older than 60% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 604 atlas entries founded in the 14th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 7,291 times in the last 60 days, more than 90% of the atlas. 16 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Kyoto, 12 km away. It is one of the 71 landmarks on the atlas's regional map of Kansai. See how Japan compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗