Karasawayama-jinja — the cat shrine

photo by 韋駄天狗 · CC BY 3.0

photo by Officeshema · CC BY-SA 4.0

8 m high walls of a mountain castle, a historic site since 2014: today cats live there.

The shrine stands on the summit of Mount Karasawayama (242 m), where the castle of the Sano clan, descendants of Fujiwara Hidesato, once stood: one of the best-preserved mountain castles in the Kantō, with stone walls more than 8 metres high and about 40 long, built after the siege of Odawara with techniques brought in from western Japan, rare for the region. The castle was abandoned after the Edo edict against mountain castles; the shrine was founded in the Meiji era on the same site. Today visitors know the place better for the colony of cats that lives free among the ruins, an informal pilgrimage destination for enthusiasts as well as for historians of the castle.

Designated a National Historic Site (国指定史跡) in 2014 and added in 2017 to the ‘Continued 100 Castles of Japan’ (続日本100名城, no. 114), the site combines the military history of the Sengoku period with the Meiji-era religious devotion to the founder of the family. From the castle forecourt you can see the whole Kantō plain.

ℹ️ Free entry to the shrine and to the castle park. The stamp for the ‘100 castles’ list is kept in the shrine office, roughly open 9:00–17:00 (hours not stated on the official site, to be checked at closing). Free car park at the foot of the climb.

🚉 Tanuma · 34 min walk

Sources: sano-kankokk.jp · tochigiji.or.jp

All series · Open the map