Inuyama Castle, National Treasure castle in Inuyama, Japan
Inuyama Castle rises on a hill beside the Kiso River and consists of a four-story wooden tower with massive stone walls at the base. The top floor offers an open walkway from which you can look over the river and surrounding mountains.
Oda Nobuyasu, an uncle of Oda Nobunaga, moved his residence from Kinoshita Castle and built the castle here in 1537; the lower two storeys of the keep date from this period. The keep took its present form around 1617, when Naruse Masanari added the curved gable window. It was designated a National Treasure in 1952.
The castle's other name, Hakutei-jō (White Emperor Castle), was given by the Confucian scholar Ogyū Sorai, who likened its hilltop site above the Kiso River to Baidicheng on the Yangtze, celebrated in Li Bai's poem "Departing from Baidicheng at Dawn". The name is recorded in the castle's own foundation, the Hakutei Bunko.
Visitors reach the hill in about 15 minutes on foot from Inuyama Station, with the path passing through the old town. The steep wooden stairs inside require sturdy footwear and some caution, especially on the upper levels.
The Naruse family owned the structure as private property for over a century until transferring ownership rights to a nonprofit foundation in 2004. This unusual status set it apart from every other major castle in the country, which had long been in government hands.
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