''''
was a Sengoku period yamashiro''-style
Japanese castle located in what is now part of the city of
Komaki,
Aichi prefecture. It was built by the warlord
Oda Nobunaga to facilitate his conquest of
Mino Province, later reused by
Tokugawa Ieyasu in his struggle for hegemony over
Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Its ruins have been protected as a
National Historic Site since 1927.
Background Komakiyama Castle is located on Mount Komaki, an isolated high hill in the center of the
Nōbi Plain in central Owari Province. The isolation of the location meant that the castle had a good view in all directions. The castle consisted of many
terraces on a steep hillside, protected by stone walls and dry moats, with the
inner bailey on the summit, crowned by a
tenshu.
History After Oda Nobunaga defeated
Imagawa Yoshimoto at the
Battle of Okehazama in 1560, securing his eastern borders, he turned his attention to the conquest of
Mino Province to the north. He built a castle on Mount Komaki in 1563 as his base of operations due to its proximity to the middle and eastern areas of Mino. Nobunaga succeeded in securing Mino by 1567 and transferred his seat to
Inabayama Castle (the future
Gifu Castle) in 1567 and then turned his attention to the conquest of the
Kansai region to the west, abandoning Komakiyama Castle. After
Nobunaga's assassination in 1582, conflict arose between his son
Oda Nobukatsu and his leading general
Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Nobukatsu allied with
Tokugawa Ieyasu and seized Owari Province, while Hideyoshi held on to Mino Province. Hideyoshi's general
Ikeda Tsuneoki crossed the
Kiso River and occupied
Inuyama Castle. To counter this move, Tokugawa Ieyasu occupied and expanded the vacant Komakiyama Castle. Both sides clashed in a series of largely inconclusive battles known collectively as the
Battle of Komaki and Nagakute. The stalemate ended when Ieyasu decided to submit to Hideyoshi, which resulted in his withdrawal to
Mikawa Province, and Komakiyama Castle was once again abandoned. In the
Edo period, Owari Province came back under the control of the
Tokugawa clan, and Komakiyama Castle was retained by
Owari Domain as a secondary fortification for use in emergencies, as it retained the shape of its original fortifications. By the time of the
Meiji restoration, these fortifications were largely in ruins. The site was donated by the Tokugawa family to the local government in 1930 and became a park. A faux
tenshu was recreated on the summit in 1967 and renovated in 2006. The building was modeled after the Hiunkaku Pavilion of the temple of
Nishi Hongan-ji in Kyoto and is thus not a historically accurate reconstruction. It houses the Komaki City Historical Museum with examples of samurai armor,
Japanese swords and early firearms,
roof tiles, and other artifacts uncovered during excavations in the castle grounds. The site is a 20 minutes walk from
Meitetsu Komaki Line Komaki Station. ==See also==