Inuyama Castle

Inuyama Castle crowns a hill about 88 metres high on the south bank of the Kiso River, which here forms the old border between the provinces of Owari and Mino. Tradition dates the castle to 1537, when Oda Nobuyasu, an uncle of Oda Nobunaga, moved his residence to the site. Its strategic position made it a prize in the wars of the late sixteenth century, including the campaign of Komaki and Nagakute in 1584.

The keep is small but of great historical value. It rises in three tiers from a stone base, with a watchtower top floor surrounded by an open balcony, a feature of early keeps, from which the view extends over the river to Gifu and the mountains beyond. A dendrochronological study published in 2021 found that the main timbers were felled between 1585 and 1588, placing it among the oldest surviving keeps in Japan. Its present appearance, including the curved gables added to the upper floor, dates from alterations around 1617–1620.

The castle's poetic name, Hakutei-jō (White Emperor Castle), compares its setting above the river to the Baidicheng fortress on the Yangtze celebrated by the Chinese poet Li Bai. Below it, the old castle town has kept its grid of streets, merchant houses and the float storehouses of the Inuyama Festival.

After passing through the hands of several lords, the castle was given in 1617 to Naruse Masanari, senior retainer of the Owari Tokugawa, and his family held it for nine generations until 1871. In the Meiji era most of the buildings were demolished and the keep became the property of Aichi Prefecture.

The Nōbi earthquake of 1891 damaged the keep, and in 1895 the prefecture returned it to the former lord Naruse Masamitsu on condition that he repair it. The Naruse family owned the castle privately until 2004, when ownership passed to a foundation established by the family. The keep was dismantled and restored between 1961 and 1965, and the castle site became a Historic Site in 2018.

Inuyama Castle is a symbol of the northern Owari region and one of the five castles whose keeps are National Treasures, with Matsumoto, Hikone, Himeji and Matsue. Its long private ownership by the Naruse family is unique in Japan and has shaped a strong local tradition of care for the castle.

The Inuyama Festival, held on the first weekend of April at Haritsuna Shrine, parades tall three-tiered floats with mechanical puppets through the castle town; it is part of the Yama, Hoko, Yatai float festivals inscribed by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage. In summer, cormorant fishing (ukai) is performed on the Kiso River below the castle, a tradition of more than a thousand years in the region.