The Satake castle never had a keep or stone walls: only earthworks, because of the Tokugawa.
On a hill overlooking the Asahi River, the castle was built between May 1603 and 28 August 1604, when the first lord, Satake Yoshinobu, who had been transferred here from Hitachi, moved in. Out of caution towards the Tokugawa shogunate (the central government of Japan at the time) it never had a real keep or stone walls: only moats and raised earthworks, with a lookout hall in place of the tower. It has been one of the hundred famous castles of Japan since 2006.
Seat of the lords of the Akita domain from 1604 until the abolition of the domains in 1871. In 1984 the Satake family donated about 14.6 hectares of the land to the city of Akita, after the death in 1983 of the thirty-fifth head of the clan: today the site is Senshū Park, a public park, with the Satake Museum and, on the west side, the Akita Prefectural Museum of Art.
ℹ️ Public park, free entry, open at all times. The cherry blossom season, between late April and early May, is the busiest time. 15 minutes’ walk from JR Akita Station.
🚉 Akita · 15 min walk
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Nearby
Akita Prefectural Museum of Art500 mphoto by 掬茶 · CC BY-SA 3.0
Akita Folk Arts Museum (Neburi Nagashi-kan)600 mphoto by 掬茶 · CC BY-SA 3.0
Akita Kantō Matsuri800 mphoto by 掬茶 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Akita City Market800 mphoto by 掬茶 · CC BY-SA 3.0