Sasayama Castle

Sasayama Castle, located in Kitashinmachi, Tamba-Sasayama City, Hyōgo Prefecture, is a hirayama-style castle built atop the small hill “Sasayama” in the center of the Sasayama Basin. It once served as the administrative seat of the Sasayama Domain and has been designated a National Historic Site.

The castle was constructed in 1609 (Keichō 14) under the orders of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Positioned at a strategic point along the San’in Road in the Tamba-Sasayama Basin, the new stronghold was intended to restrain the Toyotomi forces in Osaka as well as the western daimyō. The renowned castle architect Tōdō Takatora oversaw the design, while Ikeda Terumasa served as the chief commissioner of construction. The large-scale project mobilized 20 daimyō from 15 provinces and was astonishingly completed in only six months. Thereafter, Sasayama Castle became the political and military center of the Sasayama Domain, governed successively by the Matsui-Matsudaira, Fujii-Matsudaira, Katahara-Matsudaira, and Aoyama clans until the Meiji era.

In the modern era, beginning in 1873, the castle buildings were gradually dismantled. The grand Ōshoin (Great Hall) of the Ninomaru Palace was initially listed for demolition but spared due to the high cost. It was later repurposed as an elementary school and public hall. Unfortunately, in 1944, it was destroyed in a fire during training exercises. After World War II, the castle grounds were transformed into a public park, and in 1956, the site was officially designated a National Historic Site. In 1993, the surrounding castle town was also designated as a landscape preservation district by Hyōgo Prefecture.

A major restoration was achieved in 2000, when the reconstructed Ōshoin was opened to the public, allowing visitors to experience the grandeur of the past. In recent years, efforts have been made to improve the environment, including periodic draining and cleaning of the moats to remove invasive species and debris. In 2019, the southern plaza of the Sannomaru was refurbished and reopened.

Notably, Sasayama Castle preserves rare remnants of umadashi (outworks), with the southern umadashi being the only known surviving example constructed solely of earthen embankments, reaching about 4 meters in height. Some of the original castle gates have also been relocated to temples within the city, where they still survive as temple gates.

Today, Sasayama Castle is recognized as one of the Japan’s Top 100 Castles (No. 57). Together with its well-preserved castle town, it offers visitors a unique opportunity to experience both early Edo-period castle-building techniques and the distinctive cultural atmosphere of Tamba-Sasayama.