Yokote Castle

photo by Ocavis Leechroot · CC BY 3.0

photo by 掬茶 · CC BY-SA 3.0

photo by 掬茶 · CC BY-SA 3.0

‘Castle of leeks’: ニラ planted on the slopes to stop enemies from climbing up.

The castle, built according to tradition in 1554 by Onodera Kagemichi on Mount Asakura, passed in 1602 to the Satake as a satellite stronghold of Akita and fell on 26 September 1868 to an attack by Sendai and Shōnai. On the second bailey the present tower-museum has stood since 1965, four storeys in concrete modelled on Okazaki Castle: the first mock tower in the whole of Tōhoku. Next to it, Akita Shrine, built with the beams saved from the fire, has honoured the 22 who fell in that battle since 1879.

Mountain castle in the municipality of Yokote, now a public park (横手公園): built according to tradition in 1554 by Onodera Kagemichi, it passed in 1602 to the Satake as a satellite stronghold of Akita and from 1672 was held by the Tomura cadet branch until its fall in 1868. The tower visible today is not a reconstruction but a new building from 1965, designated a historic site by the municipality of Yokote on 26 March 1998.

ℹ️ Open 9:00–16:30 from April to November and during the Kamakura season in mid-February; closed for the rest of the winter (December–March). Ticket ¥100, valid as combined admission to three city museums: Fureai Center Kamakura-kan, the Kanazawa Museum of the Later Three Years' War (後三年合戦金沢資料館) and the Ishizaka Yōjirō Literary Memorial; free for children below junior high school age. One source (museum.or.jp) gives extended hours of 9:00–21:00 during the Kamakura season, but the municipality's page, which is more recent, does not confirm this: it says only that the hours ‘may vary’ on those days. Telephone 0182-32-1096, answered only during opening hours.

🚉 Yokote · 24 min walk

Sources: city.yokote.lg.jp · ja.wikipedia.org · museum.or.jp

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