Akechi Castle, Kani
Birth Place of Akechi Mitsuhide, Or Is It?
The main character in the 2019 NHK TV Taiga drama series “Kirin ga Kuru”, was Akechi Mitsuhide, the man responsible for the death of his lord, Oda Nobunaga in 1582.
Despite his important role in history, little is known about the man himself. In fact, it is not clear where he was born. Ena City, Mizunami City, Yamagata City, Ogaki City, and Kani City are all cited as potentially being his birthplace, either way, there is no doubt that he is from Gifu Prefecture. Among those five places, the most probable place of his birth is often said to be Akechi Castle in Kani City, also known as Akechi Nagayama Castle. Akechi Nagayama Castle is believed to have been built by the Akechi clan, a branch of the Toki family who were high ranked vassals of the Kamakura and Muromachi Shogunates.
I Disagree!
Akechi Mitsuhide is a mysterious historical figure, and Akechi Castle in Kani is also a mysterious castle, believed to have been built in 1342. Most medieval castles are compact and easy to protect being situated on relatively high mountains. Akechi Castle covers an area about 400m east to west and 300m north to south, and is located on a low mountain of around 70 meters in height. Because of this wide area and low positioning, it would be quite a difficult castle to protect. A lot of samurai would be required to defend such a large castle.
Being a large castle is not such a big problem, but another concern is that although Akechi Castle is considered a castle, it lacks many basic important castle features. For example, there are no moats, not even rivers nearby to act as a natural defenses, nor earthen embankments to protect the castle. There are no tatebori, vertical trenches to prevent lateral movement by the enemy, and to channel them into well defended areas. There is very little to nothing in the way of defensive earthworks around the outside of the kuruwa or baileys, and the gate positions are not clearly visible, nor do we know exactly where they may have been situated.
without these basic defenses, the castle would have fallen easily. So, either the masters of Akechi were on such good terms with the nations’s various daimyo that they had no concerns about facing attack, or they were extremely powerful and had a huge army, or, they must have been surrounded by a number of smaller, stronger castles to protect them.
Unfortunately, there is no proof of either of these assumptions.
The strongest part of the castle is probably the Nishi no Kuruwa, which appears to have a number of features suggesting a toride, an outlying fortress, but nothing as strong as would have been expected.
The mysteries deepen.
Around 1554, the Viper of Mino, Saito Dosan was ousted by his eldest son Yoshitatsu, who gained control of the Mino (Gifu) region. Yoshitatsu is then said to have attacked Akechi Nagayama Castle in 1556, defended by Akechi Mitsuyasu, who was killed when the castle fell, ruining the Akechi clan. However, this battle remains mostly unknown, and is even doubted by some historians due to lack of details. Mitsuhide is said to have escaped from the burning castle to become a direct retainer of the Muromachi Shogunate.
Another mysterious point of interest at Akechi Castle are the seven graves lined up within the Honmaru, central baily. It is unknown who’s graves they are, but it has been suggested they are the graves of the various lords of Akechi Castle. If so, why are they located in the Honmaru, and why are they mostly unmarked?
Most medieval castles had the lord’s mansion and living quarters for his men at the bottom of the mountain upon which the castle was built. The mountaintop would only really be used as a final retreat by the lord in times of attack. Apart from three nearby areas known as Yashiki (lit. lord’s mansion) east, west and central, there are no records or even proof of there ever having been palatial residences standing in the area. There is yet another anomaly at the foot of Akechi Castle, where stands the Tenryu-ji, the Akechi family temple which holds Japan’s largest mortuary tablet dedicated to Mitsuhide. The Tenryu-ji was established in 1625. That’s 43 years after the death of Akechi Mitsuhide. If this really was the Akechi family castle and the birthplace of Mitsuhide, why then was there no Akechi family temple in the area before this?
There are many more mysteries about Akechi Castle, and Akechi Mitsuhide himself. Even so, Akechi Castle become a very popular castle to visit thanks to the Taiga drama. So, where do I think is the most likely place for Akechi Mitsuhide to have been born? That will be revealed in a future article, but I can tell you this, the site is an amazing castle, and there is plenty of proof suggesting it was indeed the birthplace of Mitsuhide.