Kaminoyama Castle

Kaminoyama Castle is a local history museum in Kaminoyama, Yamagata, housed in a castle-style building on the site of the castle that once stood here. The original castle was known as Ushu no Meijo (羽州の名城), the famous castle of Dewa.

History

In 1535 Kaminoyama Yoshitada (上山義忠) won back Takadate Castle and moved his seat to Tenjinmori, the hill that is now Tsukioka Park. The castle marked the southern edge of the Mogami clan's territory and was fought over with the Date and Uesugi clans of Yonezawa. After the Mogami lost their domain in 1622, Matsudaira Shigetada became its lord, and the lords of the Kaminoyama domain lived there in turn. The castle and its castle town reached their full form under the Toki clan. When the Toki were moved to another domain in 1692, the shogunate had the castle pulled down. Part of the moat is all that remains.

The museum

The displays use video among other methods and follow local history from the Jomon period onward: Jomon pottery and clay figurines, haniwa from a local burial mound, and the rise of the area's warrior families. One section covers Mount Zao, a training ground for yamabushi (山伏), mountain ascetics, in the Middle Ages. Another covers the Kaminoyama hot spring town. Local tradition holds that the traveling monk Gesshu (月秀) found the spring in 1458 and named it Tsuruhagi no Yu (鶴脛の湯).

Since 1 August 2025, the labels of 354 exhibits can be read in Japanese, English and traditional Chinese through a multilingual guide system. The building also has an observation deck.