Hachiōji Castle, Mountain castle in Hachioji, Japan
This mountain fortress rises above the valley of Hachioji and spreads its grounds across several terraces shaped by narrow paths and stone walls. Today you can still make out the ditches and earthworks while individual foundations emerge under the canopy of maple and oak.
Hōjō Ujiteru began building the castle in the 1570s after Takeda forces breached Takiyama Castle in 1569, and moved his seat here by 1587. In June 1590 a Toyotomi army of 15,000 under Maeda Toshiie, Uesugi Kagekatsu and Sanada Masayuki attacked from the east and north; the castle fell in a day. Tokugawa Ieyasu later ordered its destruction.
The name comes from Hachioji Gongen, a Gion-faith deity enshrined on the mountain after the monk Myogyo is said to have met Gozu Tenno and eight princes there in the 10th century; a rival theory links it to a Sanno shrine on Mount Fukasawa. Today the summit holds Hachioji Shrine, and each June the castle ruins host a festival.
From Takao Station a bus brings you to the cemetery stop, where a trail climbs roughly twenty minutes uphill to the summit. The path can turn slippery after rain, so sturdy footwear and enough water for the climb are advisable.
Excavations at the site have yielded Chinese five-colour porcelain dishes, tea utensils, incense burners and Venetian glass, showing the lifestyle inside the castle. The reconstructed Omotedono gate was rebuilt in 2010 because the earlier reconstruction had deteriorated.
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