Anjō Castle

Anjō Castle (Japanese language: 安祥城, あんじょうじょう) was a castle in Japan, located in Hekikai District, Mikawa Province (present-day Anjō, Aichi Prefecture).

It was built on the tip of a Tongue-shaped plateau, surrounded by rice paddies and forest, with earthworks and a moat inside, and it had no main tower (tenshu). It was built in the mid-Muromachi period, and fierce fighting took place there among the Oda clan, Imagawa clan, and Matsudaira clan. Because it was surrounded by forest, it was also known by the alternate name Mori Castle (Japanese language: 森城, Morijō[*]).

Today only a stone monument, graves, Kirigishi, the moat, and some parts of the castle walls remain. Daizō-ji temple stands on the site of the honmaru, Hachiman Shrine on the site of the ninomaru, and the back garden of Daizō-ji on the site of the sannomaru.

History

• In 1440, Wada clan leader Wada Chikahira, who ruled the area around Hekikai District, built the castle.

• In 1471, Matsudaira Nobumitsu, lord of Iwazu Castle in Mikawa Province, entered the castle without bloodshed through a stratagem, and for four generations it became the main castle of the Matsudaira clan. According to the Tokugawa Jikki, after the fourth lord, Matsudaira Kiyoyasu, acquired Okazaki Castle in 1524, he continued to use Anjō Castle as his base, and it remained the stronghold of the "Anjō Matsudaira" family until his death in the Moriyama Incident.

• The first volume of the Tōshōgū Gojitsuki describes that a person from the Hatakeyama family of Kaga Province captured the castle of Anjō.

• According to the Shinpen Ryūei Zoku Hikan, volume 12, "Aoi no Gomon Rai-yu" (新編柳營續秘鑑 十二卷 葵之御紋来由), when Matsudaira Nobumitsu attacked Anjō Castle on August 2, 1479, Sakai Chikakiyo, the founder of the Sakai clan, gave him the three-hollyhock leaves (aoi) crest.

• In 1540, taking advantage of the weakening of the Matsudaira clan, Oda Nobuhide of Furuwatari Castle in Owari Province captured Anjō Castle and installed Oda Nobuhiro as its lord. In 1545, Hirotada set out to retake Anjō Castle but failed.

• In 1549, the Imagawa clan attacked Anjō Castle with an army of 20,000 men led by Taigen Sessai, and after several assaults, took the castle in November.

• Around 1562 the castle was abandoned, but troops were later deployed there during the Battle of Komaki and Nagakute.