Obama Castle

Nihonmatsu, Japan, Japan

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Obama Castle (Mutsu Province) is a mountain castle ruin located in what is now Nihonmatsu City, Fukushima Prefecture, in the former Iwashiro area of the historical Mutsu region.

The site is known mainly for its role in the early 17th century when the famous daimyō Date Masamune, founder of the Date clan and later lord of Sendai, spent one year living in the castle around 1601–1602 while consolidating power in the area before moving to his larger base at Aizuwakamatsu and then Sendai.

After the Edo period, the castle was abandoned and largely dismantled, and today the ruins of the inner tower (honmaru) are preserved as a small historical park where visitors can see remaining stone walls, terraces, and traces of the original layout, but no buildings survive from the original structure.

The site is distinguished from the more famous Obama Castle in Fukui Prefecture (on the Sea of Japan coast), which is also called Unpin Castle and was the seat of the Obama Domain under the Sakai clan, and it is important mainly for its connection to Date Masamune and local proto-daimyō history rather than for a large surviving castle complex.