Oka Castle

History

Oka Castle has a very long history. It was originally founded for Minamoto no Yoshitsune in 1185. Shiga Sadatomo entered the castle in 1332 and initiated many repairs and improvements. Shiga's descendents ruled Oka Castle until 1586. Nakagawa Hideshige took over the castle in 1594 and began more improvements and expansion of the castle, including building a main keep and palace. The main keep was destroyed in an earthquake during the Edo Period. The Nakagawa ruled until the Meiji Restoration when all the buildings were dismantled leaving only some of the stone walls we see today.

Visit Notes

not personally visited, pictures donated by Raffi. This is one of the castles I most want to see.

Gallery

stone walls
stone walls
stone walls
stone walls
stone walls
view from Oka Castle
stone walls
view from Oka Castle
gate

Castle Profile
English Name	Oka Castle
Japanese Name	岡城
Alternate Names	Takeda-jo, Gagyu-jo
Founder	Ogata Koreyoshi
Year Founded	1185
Castle Type	Mountaintop
Castle Condition	Ruins only
Designations	Top 100 Castles, Top 100 Mountaintop Castles, National Historic Site
Historical Period	Edo Period
Features	gates, stone walls
Visitor Information
Access	Bungo Taketa Sta. (Houhi Line); taxi
Visitor Information
Time Required
Website	http://www2.city.taketa.oita.jp/kanko/konomichi/index.html
Location	Taketa, Oita Prefecture
Coordinates	32° 58' 9.19" N, 131° 24' 29.05" E
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Admin
Added to Jcastle	2006
Admin Year Visited	Viewer Contributed

4.00

(4 votes)

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KirstiewebPeasant

77 months ago

Score 0

I have found good info about Oka Castle. It is very nature scenario. Everyone wants to go there for the enjoyment of natural beauty. https://itunessupport.org/

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SuupaahiirooAshigaru

82 months ago

Score 1

I went to this castle site on the last day of 2017, after a full day of visiting magaibutsu (磨崖仏) and "hidden Christian" sites in Oita, so I only had an hour before sunset. I didn't know a lot about this castle, but I was very impressed, especially by its scale. I don't think I've ever seen a castle with this many stone walls, including some very nice ones with rounded corners instead of the usual straight corners. I definitely want to come back here one day to have a better look.

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RaymondWDaimyo

123 months ago

Score 0

This is a fabulous mountaintop castle ruin to visit. Personally I rate this very highly, second only to Bitchu-Matsuyama Castle, which has an extant castle keep. Out of the many yamajiros (mountaintop castles) that I have visited so far, Oka Castle for me, surpasses almost all of them including highly rated ones like Takatori Castle (Nara) and Iwamura Castle (Gifu). Oka Castle Ruin is very impressive for a number of reasons. It is a massive castle on the same scale as Kannonji Castle (Shiga), Niitakayama Castle (Hiroshima), and Okishio Castle (Hyogo, not listed on JCastle yet.) It has way more ishigaki (stone walls) than the “Castle in the Clouds: Takeda Castle” and probably about the same amount of ishigaki if not more than Takatori Castle. If they chop down all the trees, the visible ishigaki of Oka Castle, perched on a mountain 352 metres above sea level (actual height differential is around 100 metres from the valley floor), would stretch for almost a kilometre in roughly a J-shape. As it is, there is a team of gardeners who regularly weed-whacks the site, so that most of this massive castle ruin is accessible to castle fans unlike other yamajiros such as Takatori Castle and Kannonji Castle, where many of the sprawling baileys and stone walls are buried under dense undergrowth and trees. Despite the efforts of the gardeners, the sides of some of the baileys (the stone wall parts) are still covered by a verdant carpet of ferns and weeds. I guess the castle ruin is just so big that it is impossible to keep it completely free of the rampant summer growth. Still it is much better maintained than similar-sized yamajiros that I have been to. Size and accessibility to most of the baileys alone don’t account for the wow factor of this castle ruin. It has many features that appeal to castle fans. Around a dozen different stone wall construction styles can be found at Oka Castle. In addition, there are several types of gate ruins including an Uzimon, kokuins (carved insignias), wells, an extensive drainage system, two massive “display stones” each measuring nearly 2m x 2m at the gate ruin to Sannomaru (Third Bailey) plus other smaller “display stones” elsewhere, very steep walls (particularly around the Ninomaru and Sannomaru), panoramic views including Mt. Aso in the distance on a clear day (unfortunately, it was somewhat hazy when I visited with my wife), and reasonably good signposting (in Japanese only). One final point in its favour is that there are relatively few tourists. In the four hours that we were on site, we came across probably around 50 to 60 people, and that was during the height of the Obon holiday. Combining all these factors with the detailed coloured map that you get with the 300yen entrance fee, and the fact that this castle ruin was the inspiration for Taki Rentaro’s famous composition, make this a great yamajiro to visit. BTW, Taki Rentaro’s statue is located in the Ninomaru (Second Bailey), not far from the site of where the Tsukimi Yagura used to be. The only downside to Oka Castle is that if you are using public transport to get there, express trains to JR Bungo-Takeda (from either Kumamoto or Oita) are quite limited with only several trains a day. The castle ruin is only a 20 minute walk from the station. The staff at the ticket booth to the castle site was very helpful, and if you ask, they do have a one-page A4 explanation of the castle in English. Kudos to the people managing Oka Castle for making it such a wonderful and accessible castle ruin to visit.

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RonSAshigaru

124 months ago

Score 0

There is a statue to Rentaro Taki in the ruins.

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