Japanese Castle guide in Japan castle Historical site Statue Introduction.

[Castle name]
Otsu Castle
Takatsugu Kyogoku’s residential castle where he was besieged during the Battle of Sekigahara

[Description]
Otsu Castle was located on the Biwa lakeside, Hamaotsu Otsu-shi, Shiga.

Mitsuhide Akechi betrayed and killed his master, Nobunaga Oda at Honno-ji Incident; however, Mitsuhide was avenged by Hideyoshi Hashiba who later became the ruler of Japan. While Hideyoshi destroyed Sakamoto Castle, Mitsuhide’s main castle, he built Otsu Castle and told Nagamasa Asano to rule the castle. From that time on, Nagamori Masuda and Naoyori Shinjo had overseen the castle before Takatsugu Kyogoku was given title for the castle with 60,000 Goku in 1595. Takatsugu supported the Tokugawa force at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 and defended against a siege to attack the West force from Osaka.

※The Otsu Castle Honmaru ruin

Against the Kyogoku force of 3,000 in number at Otsu Castle, the West force of 15,000 led by Motoyasu Mori and Muneshige Tachibana surrounded the castle. Otsu Castle finally fell after standing seven days of long siege. After his capitulation, Takatsugu went up on Koya Mountain and became a Buddhist monk.

Few days before Takatsugu’s surrender, Ieyasu Tokugawa defeated the West force led by Mitsunari Ishida at the Battle of Sekigahara. Ieyasu awarded Takatsugu with Obama Castle in Wakasa with 82,000 Goku to honor Takatsugu for not allowing the West force at Otsu Castle to join the Battle of Sekigahara.

※The stone fence ruin

As Takatsugu moved into Obama Castle, Ieyasu abandoned Otsu Castle and built Zeze Castle nearby as a key location for Tokaido Road.

There is not much parts of Otsu Castle remaining to this day.

[Address,access]
5-2-29 Hamaotsu Otsu-shi, Shiga 520-0047

[Map]