Odani Castle Ruins

Nagahama, Japan, Japan

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Odani Castle Ruins are the remains of a major Sengoku-period mountain castle on Mount Odani, just north of the city of Nagahama in Shiga Prefecture, best known as the stronghold of the Azai (also spelled Asai) clan, who governed this part of Omi Province for three generations in the 16th century.

The castle was begun around 1524 by Azai Sukemasa and developed into a complex network of ridges, baileys, and defensive earthworks stretching along parallel mountain ridges that meet at a 495-meter peak, earning it recognition as one of Japan’s five great mountain castles and one of the three great mountain castles of the Middle Ages.

Odani played a dramatic role in the rise of Oda Nobunaga: after the Azai were defeated by Nobunaga in 1570, they retreated to Odani, and for three years Nobunaga’s forces, led by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, besieged the fortress until it was finally stormed and captured in 1573, ending the Azai and leaving Nobunaga free to further unify the region.