Tottori Castle Ruins (Kyusho-en)

Tottori Castle occupied the slopes and summit of Mount Kyusho on the eastern edge of Tottori City from 1573, when Tsuneie Yamana first fortified the hill, through the Edo period, when it served as the seat of the Ikeda clan's Tottori Domain. The castle is best known for the 1581 siege by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, in which Hideyoshi's forces cut off supply routes and starved the garrison into surrender within weeks, an episode remembered in Japan as the 'Tottori Castle starvation siege' (Tottori Kassen no Kagoze). Ikeda Mitsunaka took possession of the domain in 1617 and expanded the fortifications into the layout whose remains are visible today. No keep survives; what remains are extensive dry-stone ramparts (ishigaki) in the sannomaru, ninomaru, and honmaru terraces, gate foundations, and the stone base of the former tenshu on the summit. The site was cleared of its wooden structures after the 1871 abolition of the domains and a 1943 earthquake further damaged surviving walls, prompting decades of stone-by-stone restoration that continues in sections of the ninomaru. The surrounding grounds, known as Kyusho-en, were laid out as a public park in the Meiji era and now combine the archaeological remains with a Japanese-style garden, distinguishing it from castle parks that rebuild a concrete keep. Interpretation is presented chronologically through on-site signage tracing the castle from its Sengoku-period origins to its Edo-period peak under the Ikeda. Climbing to the honmaru summit rewards visitors with views over Tottori City toward the Sea of Japan.