Marugame Castle, Japanese castle in Marugame, Japan
Marugame Castle is a flatland hill castle on Kameyama, a 66-metre hill in southern Marugame. Its stone walls rise in four tiers from the foot of the hill to the honmaru, totalling 60 metres, with the fan-slope profile that turns vertical at the top. The keep is a three-storey, 15-metre plastered yagura with karahafu and chidori-hafu gables.
Ikoma Chikamasa founded the original fortress in 1587, and the current structure was rebuilt in 1641 during the creation of the western Sanuki domain. The castle served as a power center for local rulers until the end of the feudal era.
The keep is a three-storey, three-tier yagura completed in 1660 under Kyōgoku Takahira, after he moved the Ōte gate to the seaward side; it is 15 metres tall, the smallest surviving castle keep in Japan. Its plastered walls carry karahafu and chidori-hafu gables. The keep, Ōte Ichi-no-mon and Ōte Ni-no-mon gates are Important Cultural Properties.
The castle opens daily from 9:00 to 16:30, and a ten-minute walk from JR Marugame Station leads to the entrance. The climb up the steep paths requires sturdy footwear and some stamina.
The walls' total height of 60 metres is Japan's tallest, but the single tallest wall is Osaka Castle's at 33 metres. After the 2018 collapse, dismantling showed the San-no-maru wall runs to the bedrock at 31 metres, Japan's second-highest. A 1/650 wooden model submitted to the shogunate survives in the Marugame City Museum.
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