According to a number of accounts, the earliest fortifications on the site of present-day Okayama Castle appeared as early as the 14th century and were built by the Nawa clan. The Asahigawa River was used as a natural defensive barrier, protecting one side of the fortifications.
In the early 16th century, the Kanamitsu clan constructed a new castle here, which at the time was known as Ishiyama. In 1573, it came under the control of the Ukita clan, after which Ukita Naoie (1529–1582) launched large-scale reconstruction efforts. He did not live to see the work completed, and construction was continued by his son Hideie.
Ukita Hideie (1573–1655) was a vassal of Toyotomi Hideyoshi and served as commander-in-chief of the Japanese forces during the invasion of Korea. Hideyoshi appointed him as one of the five regents charged with governing the country on behalf of the underage heir Toyotomi Hideyori. At the Battle of Sekigahara, Hideie fought on the side of the Western Coalition opposing Tokugawa Ieyasu. The complete reconstruction of the castle was finished by 1597, with approximately 315,000 stones used in its construction.
In addition to a large main keep built in the style of Azuchi Castle, Okayama’s defensive system included 35 yagura turrets and 21 gates, placing it among the largest castles of its time. Hideie focused not only on the castle itself but also on the development of the surrounding castle town, inviting skilled craftsmen from various parts of the country to settle there.
After his defeat at Sekigahara in 1600, Hideie was arrested and imprisoned on Hachijō Island. The castle passed to Kobayakawa Hideaki, but he died two years later. His main contribution to the castle was the construction of an outer moat approximately 1.6 kilometers long, which, according to tradition, was completed in just twenty days. Control of the castle later passed to Ikeda Tadatsugu, the son of Ikeda Terumasa, the castellan of Himeji Castle, and the grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu.
Until the Meiji Restoration, the castle was held by twelve daimyō of the Ikeda clan from the Bizen branch. In 1869, it was confiscated by the new government and used for administrative purposes by the Ministry of War (Hyōbusho); the outer moats were filled in and the defensive walls dismantled. Due to a lack of funding, most of the buildings gradually fell into ruin.
In 1931, the main keep was designated a “National Treasure,” but it was destroyed by fire during an American air raid on June 29, 1945. In 1966, the keep was reconstructed using reinforced concrete; it has six floors, three tiers, and a total height of 21 meters. From July 2021 to November 2022, a major renovation was carried out, including work aimed at strengthening the structure against earthquakes.
The foundation stones of the original keep were preserved and relocated to a nearby site. The tower is clad in black wooden boards, which gave rise to the castle’s nickname, Ujō, or “Crow Castle.” The base of the keep has the shape of an irregular pentagon, likely reflecting the influence of Korean castle layouts familiar to Ukita Hideie, while the second and third tiers are of the traditional rectangular form.
Adjacent to the main keep is the Shiogura Tower, or “salt storage tower,” which is believed to have once served as an entrance to the keep. On the first floor of the castle, visitors are offered the opportunity to take photographs wearing Edo-period costumes. In the reconstructed keep, only the figures of the mythical shachihoko creatures and certain roof elements recall the fact that before the Battle of Sekigahara many parts of the castle, including the roof tiles, were gilded.
At that time, the castle was known as Kin’ujō, or “Golden Crow Castle.” Gilded shachihoko, known as kinshachi, were reinstalled on the roof of the main keep in 1996 to mark the 400th anniversary of the castle’s founding. In addition to the keep, several gates have been reconstructed, including Akazumon (“Unopenable Gate”), Rokamon (“Corridor Gate”), and Rokujuichigangiuemon (“Gate at the Top of Sixty-One Steps”).
The Tsukimiyagura, or “moon-viewing tower,” was built by Ikeda Tadakatsu in 1620 and has survived to the present day, earning the designation of an “Important Cultural Property.” It was intended not only for viewing the moon but also for storing weapons and, unlike most moon-viewing towers that were primarily built for leisure, it was well fortified and equipped with serious defensive features such as loopholes and ishiotoshi stone-dropping devices. Nearby are the remains of a well and a gunpowder storehouse.
Another structure associated with the castle that also holds the status of an “Important Cultural Property” is the Nishinomaru Nishite Yagura, although it has since been relocated to another area within the city. The most recent reconstruction within the castle complex at the time of writing is the Tomo-no-koshikake building, erected in 2024; historically, it served as a resting place for the attendants of vassals while their superiors conducted business in the castle and was located near one of the gates, which have not survived and were not reconstructed. Overall, the castle complex is designated a “National Historic Site” and is included in the list of the Top 100 Japanese Castles.
See also
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Kaminoyama Castle
Kamino-yama Castle stood at the center of an important logistics hub, in the middle of the Yonezawa Plain, which served as the gateway to the western part of the Tohoku region. Roads connecting the Aizu, Fukushima, and Yamagata areas intersected here.
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Imabari Castle
Tōdō Takatora (1556–1630) served at different times as a vassal of several famous clans—Azai, Oda, Toyotomi, and Tokugawa. He took part in the Battle of Anegawa (1570), the Battle of Shizugatake (1583), the invasions of Kyushu and Korea, the Sekigahara campaign (1600), and the Siege of Osaka (1614–1615).
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Iwakuni Castle
Kikkawa Hiroie (1561–1625) was the grandson of the famous daimyo Mori Motonari and a vassal of the Mori clan. Under Mori Terumoto, he fought in both Korean campaigns and took part in the defense of Ulsan Castle. During the Battle of Sekigahara, Hiroie stood with his 3,000-man force on the side of the Western Coalition; however, even before the battle began, he sent Tokugawa Ieyasu a secret message stating that he did not intend to fight Tokugawa’s troops. As a result of his inaction, 15,000 soldiers under Mori Hidemoto were also unable to enter the battle, since Hiroie blocked their path.
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Gujo Hachiman Castle
Gujo Hachiman Castle is located on 350-meter Mount Hachiman, near the confluence of the Yoshidagawa and Kodaragava rivers, and not far from the Nagaragawa River. During the Sengoku period, this area was of great strategic importance: it stood at a key crossroads of routes connecting Mino Province in the south with the Sea of Japan in the north, and Hida Province in the east with Echizen Province in the west.
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Amagasaki Castle
The founding year of Amagasaki Castle is traditionally considered to be 1617, when Toda Ujikané built his castle here, making it the administrative center of the Amagasaki Domain. However, as early as the Sengoku period, a fortress built by the Hosokawa clan already stood on this site. After the fall of Itami Castle in 1579, Araki Murashige—formerly a vassal of Oda Nobunaga who had rebelled against him—fled to this earlier castle.
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Hiroshima Castle
Mōri Terumoto (1553–1625) was the grandson and rightful heir of the renowned Mōri Motonari. When Terumoto became the head of the Mōri clan in 1571, he inherited vast territories covering a large part of the San’in and San’yō regions in western Honshū. In addition, the Mōri clan possessed the largest and most technologically advanced naval fleet of its time.
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Fukuyama Castle
After the defeat of Toyotomi Hideyori’s supporters in the Osaka Campaigns of 1614–1615, many clans in Japan still remained not fully loyal to the Tokugawa shogunate, especially in the western Chūgoku region. Mizuno Katsunari (1564–1651), a cousin of Tokugawa Ieyasu, became the first of the Tokugawa house’s close retainers, the so-called fudai daimyō, to be relocated to this strategically important area.
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Tiba Castle
The founder of the Chiba clan is considered to be Chiba Tsunesige (1083–1180), who in 1126 moved his residence to the Inohana area and built a strongly fortified stronghold there. Although Tsunesige himself came from the Taira clan, the Chiba clan later supported Minamoto no Yoritomo, the future founder of the first shogunate.
