Ena City

For many visitors to Japan, getting a taste of the country’s proud and storied history sits high on the checklist. To this end, most head to Gion in Kyoto, or Takayama in Gifu, however, once there it is easy to be disappointed. Rather than the quaint, sleepy towns that people envisage, these are – understandably – tourist traps, rammed with people, and every other ‘traditional’ building is a souvenir shop. For those of you who wish to avoid such disappointment, you should instead head to Iwamura. History of Iwamura While today Iwamura is a sleepy village in the foothills that surround Ena City, it was not always thus. Far from it, in fact, because Iwamura was at one time home to one of the most impregnable castles in all of Japan. Iwamura Castle was founded in 1185 by Kato Kagekado, a vassal to Minamoto no Yoritomo, the first shogun of the Kamakura shogunate. With its location on top of a steep, treacherous hill that was often shrouded in fog – earning it the nickname “Kirigajo”, or “the misty castle” – Iwamura Castle stood undefeated as it became the fief of the Toyoma clan from the 13th to 16 century, with…