Sasayama Castle Ruins is located in Tanba Sasayama City, Hyogo Prefecture, and is the site of a flatland castle built by Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1609 as part of the Tenkabushin (National Construction Project). It was built using the best castle-building techniques of the early Edo period, but is also known for never having had a castle tower.

Sasayama Castle is a flatland castle built on Sasayama in the center of the Tanba Plain. It consists of three enclosures: Honmaru, Ninomaru, and Sannomaru. The main enclosure has a large study, and the Naito family mansion was built in Ninomaru.

All that remains is the castle tower base and stone walls, but the large study has been restored.
The large study has been faithfully restored using wood, and the interior is packed with the best of samurai architecture of the time. From the spacious tatami-floored space, you can view the garden, which changes with the seasons, and the distant mountains, giving you a taste of what it was like to be the castle lord.

The cherry blossoms in spring and the autumn leaves in autumn are beautiful, and especially during cherry blossom season, the rows of cherry trees surrounding the moat are in full bloom, attracting many visitors.

In addition, in addition to samurai residences and old houses for tourists, the area around Sasayama Castle is dotted with several restaurants, including stylish cafes and the popular "botan nabe" hotpot.

[Trivia]
Tokugawa Ieyasu built Sasayama Castle after seizing power in the Battle of Sekigahara in 1609, in order to check and monitor the Toyotomi clan forces remaining in Osaka Castle and the foreign lords of the west. The Tanba Sasayama Basin has long been a key transportation hub where the San'in Road and Kyoto Highway intersect. Here, he mobilized all his skilled craftsmen, including Takatora and Ikeda, to build a fortress with sturdy stone walls and a double-layered masugata in a short period of time. Ieyasu himself did not live in Sasayama, but appointed his relatives and fudai daimyo as castle lords and clerks, and made it function as an exit point to the western provinces.

[Hidden gems]
In addition to samurai residences and old houses for tourists, the area around Sasayama Castle is dotted with stylish cafes and restaurants. Below are some examples.

300m north: "Nikaimachi Street" a street lined with souvenir shops and restaurants
100m north: "Tanba Sasayama Taisho Romankan (former Sasayama Town Hall)" souvenirs, etc.
400m east: "Kawaramachi Tsumairi Merchants"
300m east: "Odagaki Mamedo" stylish Japanese cafe
200m west: "Samurai House Ama Family Historical Museum" "Okachimachi Samurai Houses"
100m south: "Kutsurogi Kominka Mame Neko Cat Cafe"
100m northeast: "Botan Nabe Restaurant Kisaragi An" (Reservations required for evenings, by 4:45pm)

[Useful points of concern]
The tourist spots and restaurants around Sasayama Castle are not all in one place, but are scattered in various directions at a distance. Therefore, it is better to research the shops you want to visit in advance, especially in the hot summer. When the weather is good for walking, it is a good idea to stroll around the scattered tourist spots and shops. There are relatively more shops around Nikaimachi Street, about 300 meters north.