Japanese Castle guide in Japan castle Historical site Statue Introduction.

[Castle name]
Yonezawa Castle（Uesugi Shrine）
Yonezawa Castle was where Masamune Date was born and it was the base of Kanetsugu Naoe after the battle of Sekigahara.

[Explanation]
Yonezawa Castle was a flat castle that existed in Yonezawa-shi, Yamagata prefecture. It was the Date family’s base during Sengoku period, and Masamune Date was born in this castle in the late Sengoku period. Masamune rapidly expanded his power.

in 1589 Masamune defeated his largest enemy, Ashina-shi at Aizu (Kurokawa Castle), and became the supreme ruler of the Ouu region. However, Hideyoshi Toyotomi ruled the Tenka in the central region at that time, and he had issued Shobu jirei (peace edicts).

The Ashina family was already Hideyoshi Toyotomi’s retainer, so the Kurokawa Castle was taken away from Masamune and Yonezawa Castle became his base again, and then after that Iwadeyama Castle became his base because of Hideyoshi order. On the other hand, Ujisato Game was appointed as the castle owner in AIzu, and Kagekatsu Uesugi changed his territory to Aizu after Ujisato had passed away. Yonezawa Castle was then owned by Kanetsugu Naoe as a branch castle of Uesugi-shi.

in 1600 when Ieyasu Tokugawa arrived at Koyama to fight Uesugi-shi, in Osaka Mitsunari Ishida declared to fight against Ieyasu and the battle of Sekigahara occured.

The west troops led by Mitsunari Ishida was defeated in a day by Ieyasu Tokugawa, and Mitsunari was beheaded. Masamune Date and Yoshiaki Mogami attacked Aizu, but Kamisugi-shi managed to repel them thanks to Kanetsugu Naoe’s actions. As a result Uesugi-shi lost against Ieyasu Tokugawa, and he was moved to Yonezawa for 10 thousand stones from Aizu for 1.2 million stones as he expressed his obedience to Ieyasu, and ruled Yonezawa throughout Edo period.

Due to the domain’s sudden death at the beginning of Edo period, it became 15 thousand stones from 30 thousand stones, and they barely managed to keep the family name. At the end of Edo period, Uesugi fought against the new government troops but he was defeated and expressed his obedience. There is Uesugi Shrine at the Honnmaru ruins of Yonezawa Castle now, and the castle ruins is was developed as a park called Matsugasaki Park.

※Harunori Uesugi, who rebuilt the finance of the domain during mid Edo period

[Address,access]
1 Marunouchi, Yonezawa-shi, Yamagata 992-0052

[Map]