Takatori Castle Ruins

Takatori, Japan, Japan

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Takatori Castle Ruins are the remains of one of Japan’s three great mountain castles, located on Mount Takatori (about 583 meters above sea level) in Takatori Town, Nara Prefecture, Japan, and are celebrated as the highest and one of the largest mountain castles in the country.

The castle was originally built in 1332 by the local Ochi family during the Northern and Southern Courts period, and was later expanded and rebuilt in the late 16th century by Tsutsui Junkei and Honda Toshimasa, a retainer of Toyotomi Hidenaga, turning it into a vast complex said to have had around 27 towers, 33 gates, and more than three kilometers of stone walls, with a perimeter stretching roughly 30 kilometers.

The castle was used by various lords through the Sengoku and early Edo periods, but after the Meiji Restoration most of its buildings were dismantled and abandoned, leaving mainly mossy stone walls, earthen ramparts, dry moats, and hints of the original layout beneath the dense forest, which now cover the entire mountain top.