Ohmori Castle

This is the first site we visited in late December. It's on the top of a small hill, with a view over Fukushima City. Once you know about it you can see the ground has been shaped.

Currently, the area around the castle ruins has been maintained and turned into a park, but remains such as the shape of the enclosure, and the remains of a part of the earthen walls that were dug, can be seen.

There's an observatory, built in 1993, that was closed when we there. During it's construction the northern end of the Kitadate was excavated and surveyed , and it is said that ceramics from Seto that were dated to the 16th century were unearthed.

The castle was originally built in the early 1500s. This area was regarded as an important transportation hub where the Oshu Highway and the roads leading to the castle towns of Aizuwakamatsu Castle ( Aizuwakamatsu City, Fukushima Prefecture ) and Yonezawa Castle (Yonezawa City, Yamagata Prefecture) intersect.

It was eventually abandoned in 1664.

References:

https://www.fukutabi.net/fuku/fukusimasi/oomorisiro.html

https://www.hb.pei.jp/shiro/mutsu/ohmori-jyo/

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A4%A7%E6%A3%AE%E5%9F%8E

https://jcastle.info/view/Ohmori_Castle