Sasayama Castle

Sasayama Castle was built in 1609 on Tokugawa Ieyasu's orders, with lords from across western Japan made to supply the labour. Tōdō Takatora laid it out and Ikeda Terumasa ran the work. It guarded the roads west of Kyoto and Osaka and kept watch on the lords who had sided with the Toyotomi. The keep was never built: according to the town's sign on the keep base, the shogunate stopped the work because the castle was already strong enough, and a small corner tower stood there instead. The keep base, about 17 metres high, is the highest point of the grounds, with a view east to Takashiroyama, the hill of the medieval Yakami Castle. The stone walls and moats survive and are a National Historic Site. The one building is the Ōshoin, the great hall built with the castle. It stood until it burned on the night of 6 January 1944 and was rebuilt in 2000. Inside are tatami rooms with gold screens painted with pines and flowers, and a wooden model of the hall. Outside, low stone kerbs on the ground mark out the rooms of the Ninomaru palace that once stood beside it.