Utsunomiya Castle

Utsunomiya Castle 宇都宮城
, , Japan
reconstructed Fujimi Yagura at Utsunomiya Castle
Edo-period map of Utsunomiya Castle
Coordinates	Coordinates: 36°33′16″N 139°53′09″E / 36.55444°N 139.88583°E / 36.55444; 139.88583
Type	flatland-style Japanese castle
Site information
Open to the public	yes
Site history
Built	late Heian period
In use	Sengoku-Edo period
Demolished	1868

Utsunomiya Castle (宇都宮城, Utsunomiya-jō^?) is a Japanese castle located in , central , Japan. At the end of the Edo period, Utsunomiya Castle was home to a branch of the Toda clan, daimyō of Utsunomiya Domain.

Utsunomiya Castle was first built in the Heian period by either Fujiwara Hidesato or Fujiwara Sōen around the year 1063. This castle was built on a small hill south of Utsunomiya Futarayama Jinja, the ichinomiya of Shimotsuke Province, on a juncture of the Ōshū Kaidō and the Nikkō Kaidō highways. Fujiwara Sōen played an important role in the Former Nine Years War and was the ancestor of the Utsunomiya clan, who dominated the area for the next 500 years, through the Kamakura and Muromachi periods. During the Sengoku period, the castle was greatly enlarged, enclosing an area over four kilometers in diameter with a series of concentric moats and high earthen ramparts, and came to be renowned as one of the seven major castles of the Kantō region. The Utsunomiya successfully defended the castle against repeated attacks by the Odawara Hōjō clan. However, the Utsunomiya clan was dispossessed of their holdings in 1597 by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and the castle came under the control of the Gamo clan, based in Aizu. With the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate, Utsunomiya Castle became the center of Utsunomiya Domain, ruled by a succession of daimyo clans, beginning with the Okudaira in 1601.