270px, Map of Itami Castle. was a

Muromachi period The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by ...

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, suc ...

located in Kawabe District of northern

Settsu Province was a province of Japan, which today comprises the southeastern part of Hyōgo Prefecture and the northern part of Osaka Prefecture. It was also referred to as or . Osaka and Osaka Castle were the main center of the province. Most of Setts ...

(what is now the city of Itami,

Hyōgo Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Hyōgo Prefecture has a population of 5,469,762 () and has a geographic area of . Hyōgo Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the east, Osaka Prefecture to the southeast, ...

), Japan. It is also called .Its ruins have been protected as a National Historic Site since 1979. The ruins of the castle are located just in front of today's Itami Station.

History

Itami Castle was constructed by the Itami clans minor samurai clan who controlled this area of Settsu Province in the

Nanboku-chō period The Nanboku-chō period (南北朝時代, ''Nanboku-chō jidai'', "North and South court period", also known as the Northern and Southern Courts period), spanning from 1336 to 1392, was a period that occurred during the formative years of the Mur ...

. It was extensively remodeled in 1472. In 1574,

Araki Murashige was a retainer of Ikeda Katsumasa, head of the powerful "Setssu-Ikeda clan" of Settsu Province. Under Katsumasa, Murashige sided with Oda Nobunaga following Nobunaga's successful campaign to establish power in Kyoto. Military life Murashige be ...

demolished the castle, and rebuilt it as one of the largest castles in this region. He also changed its name from Itami Castle to Arioka Castle. However, after Araki rebelled against

Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese '' daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period. He is regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. Nobunaga was head of the very powerful Oda clan, and launched a war against other ''daimyō'' to unif ...

, the castle was attacked during the Siege of Itami (1579). According to Turnbull, the castle was captured "by digging a long tunnel from outside the walls to a spot near to the castle's keep." The castle was awarded to Ikeda Motosuke, one of Nobunaga's generals, in 1580. Ikeda was transferred to a new domain in

Mino Province was a province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today southern Gifu Prefecture. Mino was bordered by Ōmi to the west, Echizen and Hida to the north, and Shinano to the east, and Ise, Mikawa, and Owari to the south. Its abbrevia ...

in 1583 and the castle was abandoned. At its height, the castle extended from 1.7 kilometers north-to-south by 0.8 kilometers east-to-west, and was an early example of a type of fortification in which the entire

castle town A castle town is a settlement built adjacent to or surrounding a castle. Castle towns were common in Medieval Europe. Some examples include small towns like Alnwick and Arundel, which are still dominated by their castles. In Western Europe, ...

forms part of the defenses by being completely encircled by moats and earthen ramparts, and with the arrangement of streets and townhouses planned as part of the defensive belt. The Itami River, Daroku River and the Ina River form part of the natural fortifications, and were connected by moats on the west and south. Three fortresses were placed a key points on the outer defense line. The structure was strong enough to withstand attacks by Oda Nobunaga's large army for a year. The east side of the castle site was destroyed in 1891 due to railway construction, and most of Honmaru (

inner bailey The inner bailey or inner ward of a castle is the strongly fortified enclosure at the heart of a medieval castle.Friar, Stephen (2003). ''The Sutton Companion to Castles'', Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 2003, p. 22. It is protected by the outer w ...

) has been lost.

Archaeological excavation In archaeology, excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains. An excavation site or "dig" is the area being studied. These locations range from one to several areas at a time during a project and can be cond ...

s were performed on the site from 1975, with remnants of moats, wells and stone walls uncovered. The stone walls incorporated gravestones and stone pagodas which had been plundered from Buddhist temples in the vicinity. The castle site is now open as a public park.

Access

* Itami Station (Hankyu) of Hankyu Itami Line * Itami Station (JR West) of

Fukuchiyama Line The is a railway line operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West) connecting Osaka and Fukuchiyama, Japan. Within JR West's "Urban Network" covering the Osaka–Kobe–Kyoto metropolitan region, the line from Osaka to Sasayamaguchi is also ...

References

External links

{{Commons category-inline, Itami Castle
Itami City homepage
Castles in Hyōgo Prefecture Historic Sites of Japan Itami, Hyōgo Settsu Province

History

Access

See also

Further reading

References

External links