Gujo Hachiman Castle

Gujo, Gifu, Japan, Japan

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Gujo Hachiman Castle is a mountain castle (yamashiro) perched on Hachiman Mountain above the town of Gujo Hachiman in Gujo City, Gifu Prefecture, Japan, and is known for its dramatic hilltop position and the views it offers over the valley town below.

The castle was originally built in 1559 by the warlord Endō Morikazu as a war camp and fort at the end of the Sengoku period, and it later came under the control of the Inaba, Inōe, Kanamori, and Aoyama clans, who ruled the region as castle lords until the Meiji reforms. The original structure was abandoned in 1871 following the abolition of the han system and destroyed in 1872, but in 1933.

It was rebuilt as a full-scale wooden castle tower modeled largely on Ogaki Castle, making Gujo Hachiman the oldest reconstructed wooden castle in Japan and one of the first major wooden reconstructions of a former Edo-period castle. Today the castle stands on a steep hill that can be reached by car, taxi, or a roughly 20-minute uphill walk from the town center, passing temples and stone monuments, and it is open to visitors with admission fees and seasonal hours that extend into the evening in summer, with shorter hours in winter and a closure period from December 20 to January 10.