Obama Castle Site

Obama, Japan, Japan

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Obama Castle Site is the remains of a seaside-style castle in the city of Obama, Fukui Prefecture, on the Wakasa coast of the Japan Sea, originally built in 1601 by Kyogoku Takatsugu and later completed as a castle town by Sakai Tadakatsu, who ruled the area for 238 years as daimyō of Obama Domain under the Tokugawa shogunate.

The castle was designed as an island fortress in a river delta, with the main enclosure almost completely surrounded by water moats and inner bailey layers also protected by water, and it featured a three-story, three-tiered main keep modeled on the Fujimi Yagura of Edo Castle, but most of the wooden structures were destroyed by fire in 1871 and the fortified elements were largely demolished after the Meiji Restoration, leaving only the stone walls of the main enclosure and some surrounding earthworks.