is a ''hirashiro'' (

castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

on a plain) located in Nagahama,

Shiga Prefecture is a landlocked prefecture of Japan in the Kansai region of Honshu. Shiga Prefecture has a population of 1,398,972 as of 1 February 2025 and has a geographic area of . Shiga Prefecture borders Fukui Prefecture to the north, Gifu Prefecture to th ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

History

Nagahama Castle was built in 1575-1576 by Hashiba Hideyoshi (later known as

Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period, Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods and regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: ...

) in the village then called Imahama, renaming the area Nagahama. Previously, he had ruled from Odani Castle, though found this hard to do as it was a ''yamashiro'' (mountaintop castle). Hideyoshi was succeeded as lord by

Yamanouchi Kazutoyo , also pronounced Yamanouchi (1545/1546? – November 1, 1605), was a retainer of Oda Nobunaga and later Toyotomi Hideyoshi. His father Yamauchi Moritoyo was a descendant of Fujiwara no Hidesato, a senior retainer of the Iwakura Oda clan (opp ...

after the 1583

Battle of Shizugatake The took place during the Sengoku period of Japan between Toyotomi Hideyoshi (then Hashiba Hideyoshi) and Shibata Katsuie in Nagahama, Shiga, Shizugatake, Ōmi Province over a period of two days beginning on the 20th day of the fourth month of ...

. Kazutoyo was then replaced by Naito Nobunari after the

Battle of Sekigahara The Battle of Sekigahara (Shinjitai: ; Kyūjitai: , Hepburn romanization: ''Sekigahara no Tatakai'') was an important battle in Japan which occurred on October 21, 1600 (Keichō 5, 15th day of the 9th month) in what is now Gifu Prefecture, ...

in 1600. In 1615, the castle was demolished, though parts of it were used in the construction of

Hikone Castle is an Edo-period Japanese castle located in the city of Hikone, Shiga Prefecture, Japan. It is considered the most significant historical site in Shiga. The site has been protected as a National Historic Site since 1951. Hikone is one of only ...

Today

Nagahama Castle is now a park. Most of the castle lies in ruins, but the ''tenshu'' (keep) was reconstructed out of concrete in 1983. It contains a museum about the city of Nagahama.Nagahama, Shiga Prefecture
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References

{{Authority control Castles in Shiga Prefecture Museums in Shiga Prefecture History museums in Japan

History

Today

Further reading

References