Nanao Castle History Museum
Nanao Castle was one of the great mountain castles of Japan and was considered almost impregnable until it fell to the forces of warlord Uesugi Kenshin (1530–1578) in 1577. The castle was built in the early sixteenth century by the Hatakeyama family who ruled the Noto Peninsula for 186 years from the fifteenth to sixteenth centuries.
The museum at the base of the mountain below the castle site displays artifacts excavated from the grounds of the former fortress. The building features the Hatakeyama family crest, two horizontal lines within a circle, as a decorative element on the facade. The museum has two floors, and on the first, a large screen shows a computer graphic presentation of the castle as it may have looked in the sixteenth century. Visitors can watch the presentation in English or Japanese. The video gives visitors a better understanding of the vast scale of the castle, which resembled a city covering several ridges of the mountain.
A large illustration depicts the town at the base of the mountain as it would have looked in 1544 when the Hatakeyama family was at the height of its power. The detailed image, based on archaeological finds, gives insight into the life of ordinary townspeople in the sixteenth century. On the second floor of the museum, the displayed artifacts include pottery, lacquerware, and crafts dating from the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries.
The Nanao Castle History Museum is open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (Closed on Mondays.)