Gassantoda Castle

**Two starting points, two different walks.** From Michi-no-Eki Hirose-Tomidajo the climb is around forty minutes and takes in the whole approach the attackers would have faced. Driving up to the Sanchu-goten car park cuts it to about twenty-five and skips the part that explains the castle. **Sanchu-goten is the best surviving structure.** The stone-walled terrace partway up is where the residence stood and is the most legible piece of the site. The summit has the view; this has the architecture. **Read Yamanaka Shikanosuke before you go.** His monument on the mountain means little without the story of the failed restoration of the Amago. Knowing it turns a walk up a hill into something considerably more affecting for Japanese visitors, and the same works for anyone else. **The roadside station is a real stop.** Michi-no-Eki Hirose-Tomidajo has food and souvenirs and offers indigo-dyeing sessions with Hirose kasuri, the local resist-dyed cotton. It is the practical base for the visit. **Combine with Adachi.** The Adachi Museum of Art is close by, and the contrast between a manicured garden that tops national rankings and a bare mountain fortress makes an unusually good day.