Tateyama Castle, Castle ruins in Tateyama, Japan
Tateyama Castle is a castle ruin on a wooded hill near Tateyama Bay, where stone walls and a reconstructed tower recall the former fortress. The castle hill is now laid out as a public park, with walking paths between trees and a small museum inside the rebuilt main tower.
The warlord Satomi Yoshiyori built the fortress on the hill in the late 16th century to control the Boso Peninsula and secure his clan's position. The site was later abandoned and fell into decay, until the main tower was rebuilt in the 1980s following a different model.
The reconstructed building on the hilltop now serves as a city museum where visitors can explore displays about local history and the Edo period. The permanent exhibition also features objects and stories related to the classic novel about the eight dogs of Satomi, set in this region.
You reach the hilltop through Shiroyama public park, where signs in Japanese explain the site. The climb up the hill takes only a few minutes and offers views of the bay on clear days.
The current tower does not follow the original design but instead borrows from the architecture of Maruoka Castle in Fukui Prefecture, because drawings or plans of the old site are missing. This decision shows how modern reconstructions fill historical gaps with comparable examples.
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