Tottori Castle

was a Japanese castle located in Tottori, Tottori Prefecture in the San'in Region of western Japan. It has been protected by the central government as a National Historic Site since 1957 with the area under protection expanded in 1987. The Historical Site designation also includes the fortification erected by Toyotomi Hideyoshi during the 1581 Siege of Tottori.

History

Tottori Castle was constructed in Inaba Province during the Sengoku period as a ''yamashiro'' ("mountain castle") built into the mountain itself, using natural obstacles and defenses to a greater extent than man-made walls. The castle is located to the north the center of modern Tottori on Mount Kyusho, which has steep slopes. It is claimed that in the late 12th century, following the Genpei War, the new ''Shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo granted the position of ''shugo'' of Inaba Province to Nasu no Yoichi, the hero of the Battle of Yashima. Nasu lost the castle soon afterwards to Kajiwara Kagetoki in a hunting competition. However, the castle in its present form was constructed by the Yamana clan from 1532 to 1555. In the early Muromachi period, the Yamana once held the position of ''shugo'' over most of the San'in and the San'yō region, but their hold over Inaba Province itself was weak following the Onin War and the castle was built to counter the increasingly aggressive Amago clan from Izumo, who had seized neighboring Hōki Province from the Yamana and who were now threatening their home province of Tajima. The Amago were defeated by the Mōri clan of Aki Province in 1566 and Inaba Province became a battleground between the Mōri, the remnants of the Amago, and the waning power of the Yamana, who under , Yamana Toyokuni moved clan's main stronghold to Tottori castle from Tenjinyama castle in 1573. The castle fell to the Mōri in 1575; however, by seizing Inaba and parts of Harima Province, the Mōri came into conflict with the rapidly increasing power of Oda Nobunaga. In 1577, Nobunaga dispatched an army under Hashiba Hideyoshi to conquer the Mōri.

Hideyoshi's campaign took several years. In 1577 he first had to suppress revolts at Miki Castle in Harima and Arioka Castle in Settsu Province; he completed his conquest of Tajima Province (with its silver mines) in 1580 and Harima Province in 1581, and persuaded the Nanjō clan (who controlled Hōki Province) and Ukita Naoie (who controlled Mimasaka and Bizen Provinces to defect from the Mōri. In 1581 the Mōri responded by appointing Kikkawa Tsuneie to Tottori Castle with an army of 3000 men. Rather than attack the reputedly impregnable Tottori Castle by frontal assault, Hideyoshi opted for siege warfare. He purchased all available rice and other foodstuffs in Inaba Province for very high prices. He also built a semi-circular 12-kilometer long encampment called the on three sides of the castle to isolate it from the town and any supplies or reinforcement. With little food and no hope of reinforcement, the castle surrendered after three months and Kikkawa Tsuneie was forced to commit ''seppuku''.

After taking the castle without damage, Hideyoshi assigned it to his general, Miyabe Keihin. However, after his death and the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, Tokugawa Ieyasu reassigned the castle to Ikeda Mitsumasa in 1616. As ''daimyō'' of Tottori Domain">daimyō">DF 18 of 80/nowiki> r ...