Wakimoto Castle

Wakimoto Castle (脇本城, Wakimoto-jō) is a Sengoku period Japanese castle located in Oga, Akita Prefecture, in the Tōhoku region of Japan. The site was designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 1979.

The precise date of the construction of Wakimoto Castle is not known, but it is presumed to be sometime during the 15th century. The castle was the stronghold of the Andō clan, whose origins are also shrouded in mystery. The Andō were possibly descendants of the indigenous Emishi people who populated the Tōhoku region prior to the arrival of the Yamato Japanese in the late Nara period. The Andō were a maritime clan who controlled the northern Sea of Japan coastline of Japan, including southern Ezo (Hokkaido), and who engaged in trade and fishing. Under the Kamakura shogunate and into the Nanbokuchō period, the clan enjoyed virtual autonomy in their domains, trading with mainland Asia through the Tosaminato port in what is now Aomori Prefecture and from the 14th century at Tsuchizaki Port in what is now the city of Akita.

However, in the 15th century, the Andō came under attack by the Nanbu clan based at Sannohe Castle and was forced to retreat from Tosaminoto Port to Hokkaido. Despite numerous counterattacks, the Andō were unable to recover Tosaminato, but a branch of the clan called the "Minato Andō" held out at Tsuchizaki. In the middle of the 15th century, the Minato Andō asked the main branch of the clan to relocate from Hokkaido to Dewa Province, and under Andō Masasue (d.1488), they built Hiyama Castle near Noshiro, becoming the "Hiyama Andō". The two branches of the clan co-existed for a century.

The two branches of the clan united under Andō Chikasue (1539-1587). Andō Chikasue rebuilt a pre-existing fortification at Wakimoto from 1577, and used this as his seat.

Wakimoto Castle is located on a flat-topped hill with a height of 100 meters at the base of Oga Peninsula near the edge of the Akita Plain and near the mouth of Lake Hachirogata (which has now disappeared due to land reclamation). It was protected by the lake to its front, and by the Sea of Japan to its rear. At the peak of the hill there is a group of square-shaped enclosures which contained the residence, surrounded by kuruwa terraces, which might be a remnant of the original castle.

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

Wakimoto Castle ranks #5,974 of 8,134 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #283 of the 297 mapped in Japan. 2 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how Japan compares in the castle statistics.

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