Hachigata Castle Ruins

Yorii, Saitama, Japan, Japan

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Hachigata Castle Ruins are the remains of a major Sengoku-period fortress located in the town of Yorii, Saitama Prefecture, Japan, on a natural peninsula formed by the Arakawa River and the Fukasawagawa River, which made it a key stronghold for the Later Hōjō clan in controlling the Musashi Province and the wider Kantō region.

The castle was originally built in 1476 by Nagao Kageharu, a vassal of the Uesugi clan, and later greatly strengthened and expanded under Hōjō Ujikuni, who became its lord in 1560, and it became famous for successfully resisting invasions by powerful warlords such as Takeda Shingen in 1569 and the combined armies of Maeda Toshiie and Uesugi Kagekatsu under Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1590 before finally surrendering after a month-long siege under the condition that its defenders’ lives be spared.

The ruins are protected as a National Historic Site since 1932 and are counted among the 100 Best Castles of Japan, with extensive earthworks, moats, stone walls, gates, stairs, and garden ponds largely preserved in their original condition, some of which have been partially reconstructed to show the scale and layout of the castle.