Odawara Castle: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Odawara Castle (小田原城; -jō) is a landmark in the city of Odawara in Kanagawa Prefecture. It was the stronghold of various daimyo during the Muromachi period of Japanese history. From 1495 onward, five generations of the Late Hojo clan held the castle. The extensive defenses, including ditches, enabled the defenders to repel attacks by the great warriors Uesugi Kenshin and Takeda Shingen. However, Toyotomi Hideyoshi took the castle in 1590, and awarded the holdings of the Hojo to Tokugawa Ieyasu, who in turn installed the Okubo clan at Odawara.

During the Edo period, Odawara's strategic location on the Tokaido, between mountainous Hakone and Sagami Bay, gave it great strategic importance. The castle controlled the Tokaido between the Tokugawa headquarters at Edo and the stations west of Hakone, including Sumpu (Shizuoka), Hamamatsu and Nagoya.

Today, a reproduction of the castle stands high on a hill above Odawara.