| Naegi Castle Ruins | 苗木城跡 |
| Nakatsugawa (中津川市) | August 13, 2020 |
About Naegi Castle Ruins
Looming on the north side of the Kiso River in Nakatsugawa, Naegi Castle once demanded an impressive view from atop Mt. Takamori. Its layout and use of the mountain’s natural stone as is make it quite unique among Japanese mountaintop castles. Also, according to records it was made out of red clay instead of the usual white.
Unfortunately, the castle was torn apart and the materials sold to pay off debt during the Meiji period. The main struts that we see now are a reconstruction and there’s a museum at the base of the mountain.
Though the castle itself is gone and all we can see are the ruins, the view from the top is truly stunning.
The gojoin were available at the museum.
You can see other goshuin from Gifu Prefecture here and other castle gojoin here.
My Trip
I’d seen photos of this place for ages. The path built into the mountain leading up to the wooden base. The view from the top. It was fairly near where I live in Gifu Prefecture, but it took a few years to finally get over there. I was stoked. We also went to Nakatsugawa-juku and Matsumoto Castle on this trip, too. A couple of other places I was looking forward to.
We made the drive out there and parked in the small parking lot and made the walk out to the mountain.
There were only a few other people visiting while we were there. It was a clear, summer day and pretty hot, but the lovely mountain scenery kept us going. There are signs dotting the various areas parts of the path explaining what was once there. The signs are written in Japanese, but mostly have QR codes for the English versions for visitors that need them.
The view from the top was worth the climb.
