Iwakuni Castle

This guide to Iwakuni Castle, near Hiroshima, follows the samurai Kikkawa Hiroie, who struck a secret deal with Tokugawa forces before the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 and spent seven years, from 1601, building a fortress above the Nishiki River on Mount Shiroyama with the small corner of land the deal left him. It traces what happened when the shogun in Edo issued the one province, one castle order in 1615, and the hill sat empty for the next three hundred and forty seven years. When Iwakuni finally rebuilt the keep in 1962, the builders found something odd about where Hiroie's original fortress had actually stood. Climb to the top floor for the same view over the river and Kintai Bridge toward the Seto Inland Sea.