- Izushi Castle (Toyooka City)
- Tajima Takeda Castle (Asago City)
- Kuroi Castle (tamba City)
- Sasayama Castle (Tamba-Sasayama City)
- Arioka Castle (Itami City)
- Amagasaki Castle (Amagasaki City)
- Sumoto Castle (Sumoto City)
- Rikan Castle (Sayo-cho)
- Mikazuki Jinya (Sayo-cho)
- Ojio (Okishio) Castle (Himeji City)
- Tatsuno Castle (Tatsuno City)
- Kanjosen Castle (Aioi City)
- Ako Castle (Ako City)
- Akashi Castle (Akashi City)
A castle complex consisting of two areas, an upper castle on Mt. Mikuma (altitude 150 m) located to the south of the city, and a palace (lower castle) built at the northern foot of the mountain. Wakisaka Yasuharu, who became lord of Sumoto in 1585, remodeled the old mountaintop castle of Yamagami to have stone walls, but the castle at the foot of the mountain was built in 1630 after the Hachisuka clan seized Awaji Island and their chief retainers the Inada clan took control of the castle. On the hillside there is a rare nobori-ishigaki (climbing stone wall) connecting the two castles that still survives.
【Sumoto Castle (panoramic view)】
【View to the south from the mountain】
【The lower castle / Moat and stone walls remain】
The smoothly shaped surface with few gaps indicates that this is a newly constructed stone wall.
【Nobori-ishigaki (climbing stone wall) on the mountainside 】
One of a few precious surviving examples of walls connecting upper and lower castles,
with only a few in Japan including Iyo-Matsuyama Castle and Hikone Castle.
【Upper castle / A magnificent stone wall remains】
An example of the stone wall style popular from the Azuchi-Momoyama period (1573-1600)
to the beginning of the Edo period (1603-1868).
【Replica Tenshu (castle keep) on the mountaintop】
This replica Tenshu is a tourist monument built in 1929.
【Reservoir at the upper castle】
This huge man-made mountain pond illustrates the struggle to secure water.
【Overlooking the castle town from the mountain (part 1)】
【Overlooking the castle town from the mountain (part 2)】
