is a
Japanese castle
are fortresses constructed primarily of wood and stone. They evolved from the wooden stockades of earlier centuries, and came into their best-known form in the 16th century. Castles in Japan were built to guard important or strategic sites, such ...
in
Usuki,
Ōita Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Ōita Prefecture has a population of 1,136,245 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 6,340 km2 (2,448 sq mi). Ōita Prefecture borders Fukuoka Prefecture to the northwest, Kum ...
,
Japan. Another name of this castle is .
History
This castle was constructed by
Ōtomo Sōrin
, also known as Fujiwara no Yoshishige (藤原 義鎮) and Ōtomo Yoshishige (大友 義鎮), was a Japanese feudal lord (''daimyō'') of the Ōtomo clan, one of the few to have converted to Roman Catholicism (Christianity). The eldest son of , he ...
in 1562 on the island Nyū-jima, in Usuki Bay as his head castle. During the 1560s, Sōrin had the largest territory in
Kyūshū. However, after defeat at the
Battle of Mimikawa in 1578, the power of Sōrin and the Ōtomo clan rapidly declined. In 1586, this castle fell to
Shimazu Yoshihiro
was the second son of Shimazu Takahisa and the younger brother of Shimazu Yoshihisa. Traditionally believed to be the 17th head of the Shimazu clan, he was a skilled general during the Sengoku period who greatly contributed to the unification ...
, a daimyō of
Kagoshima
, abbreviated to , is the capital city of Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. Located at the southwestern tip of the island of Kyushu, Kagoshima is the largest city in the prefecture by some margin. It has been nicknamed the "Naples of the Eastern wor ...
, but was rescued by
Toyotomi Hideyoshi
, otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations that Changed the Cour ...
.
Access
*
Usuki Station on the
Nippō Main Line
The is a railway line in Kyushu, in southern Japan, operated by Kyushu Railway Company (JR Kyushu). The line connects Kokura Station in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, and Kagoshima Station in Kagoshima via the east coast of Kyushu, passing through the p ...
Literature
*
References
Usuki Castle page on Usuki City home page(Japanese)
*Japanese version of Wikipedia
Literature
*
{{coord, 33, 7, 18.59, N, 131, 48, 14.77, E, region:JP_scale:10000_source:jawiki, display=title
Castles in Ōita Prefecture