Kiyosu Castle

Introduction

Kiyosu Castle is where Oda Nobunaga began his rise. Built in 1405 as an outlying fort of Shiba Yoshishige's Shimitsu castle, it became Nobunaga's seat when he moved from Nagoya in 1555; in 1560 he marched from here to crush Imagawa Yoshimoto at Okehazama, and after the Honno-ji incident of 1582 the Kiyosu Conference that settled his succession was held within these walls. In 1610 Tokugawa Ieyasu shifted the centre of Owari to Nagoya in the so-called Kiyosu-oshi, and the castle was abandoned. The three-storey keep seen today across the vermilion Ote Bridge over the Gojogawa is a 1989 replica on a different site, not the original structure. Inside, exhibits on the castle and its town recreate a Sengoku castle town and trace the links between Nobunaga, Hideyoshi and Ieyasu; the top floor reaches views toward Mt Ibuki and Mt Ontake. The real main-bailey ruins lie across the river in Kiyosu Old Castle Ruins Park and Kiyosu Park, split by the JR tracks, with a stone marker, a small shrine to Nobunaga and statues of Nobunaga and his wife Nohime. A bronze of the 27-year-old Nobunaga leaving for Okehazama completes the classic contrast of black keep and red bridge.

✨ Highlights

🛈 Practical Info