Uryuyama Castle (瓜生山城)
Uryuyama Castle is a yamashiro (a castle on a mountain) that was built on Uryu-yama Mountain (with a height of 301m above sea level) in present Kiyozawaguchi-cho, Kitashirakawa, Sakyo Ward, Kyoto City (Otagi County, Yamashiro Province at that time) in the Sengoku period (period of warring states). It is also called Kitashirakawa Castle based on its location or Shogunjizosan Castle based on another name of the mountain.
Uryu-yama Mountain has been worshiped since 1361 in the period of the Northern and Southern Courts, when Shogunzizo-do Hall was built, and the hall was moved to the present site (Uryuzan-cho, Kitashirakawa) in 1762 in the Edo period.
However, in 1527, Takakuni HOSOKAWA, kanrei (a shogunal deputy), built a castle in the area from the mountain top to Jigoku-dani Valley on the east side to fight against Harumoto HOSOKAWA. It is said that this is the origin of the castle. On July 29, 1531, however, the castle fell to the enemy before Takakuni died in a fight.
Then on April 30, 1547, Yoshiharu ASHIKAGA, seii taishogun (literally, "great general who subdues the barbarians") of the Muromachi bakufu entered this castle together with Ujitsuna HOSOKAWA and Taneie KONOE and barricaded themselves there to defeat Harumoto HOSOKAWA who had become Kanrei. However, on August 14, 1547, the castle fell to an attack by Harumoto who had brought Kyoto under his control on August 7, and Yoshiharu and Yoshifuji ASHIKAGA, father and son, escaped to Omi Province.
Furthermore, on March 19, 1561, Hisahide MATSUNAGA, a vassal of the Miyoshi clan, attacked and destroyed Shigesumi NAGAHARA, a vassal of the Rokkaku clan, who had occupied this castle.
After that, in the attack and burning of Mt. Hiei by Nobunaga ODA in 1571, Mitsuhide AKECHI entered this castle to hold movements of the Enryaku-ji Temple side in check indirectly. However, it is thought that once Nobunaga established control of Kyoto, the castle lost its military importance and was abandoned.