yamajiro 山城

Lit. "mountain castle." A castle built on a mountain to take advantage of the mountain's topography. One of the three main types of castles as classified according to site topography by Edo military scholars; the others are the flatland castle *hirajiro 平城, and flatland mountain castle *hirayamajiro 平山城. Originally the term referred to a castle built only on the top of a mountain, with nothing built at the foot. Today, the term is applied to any castle built on mountains at least 150 m high. The yamajiro may be built on an isolated mountain or on one mountain in a larger range. In the Southern and Northern Court period *Nanbokuchō jidai 南北朝時代, castles were nearly all of this type, and yamajiro remained the main type until the latter half of the 16th century. Good examples of mountain castles from the early modern period include Bitchū Matsuyama-jō 備中松山城 in Okayama Prefecture, and Tsuwano-jō 津和野城 in Shimane Prefecture.