Historical information from the J-Castle website -
The castle was built by Mori Motonari in 1555 on the island of Miyajima. It was a very small castle in a visible location intended to lure Sue Harukata into a trap. Sue took the bait in September 1555 and took an overwhelming force (approx 10,000 men) to the island. He built the To-no-oka fort on a hilltop Itsukushima Shrine and Miyao Castle on Sept 16 and easily attacked and took Miyao Castle on September 21. While Sue was preoccupied with Miyao Castle, Mori took Sakurao Castle, one of Sue's most critical castles on the mainland. In a thunderstorm on October 1, the Mori positioned their forces for a dawn attack on the castle. The Sue forces were defeated, those that fled the island by ship were hunted down by the Murakami, allies of the Mori. Sue Harukata himself, seeing the hopelessness of his situation committed seppuku.
As a sacred site, no castle had been built on Miyajima Island where blood could not be shed. After the battle, Mori removed all the bodies of the fallen, scrubbed down bedrock and buildings where blood had been shed and even removed blood soaked soil. In the following years Mori Motonari also funded several construction projects for the Itsukushima Shrine. No further castles were built on the island after Miyao Castle was abandoned.
This is at the bottom of the hill.
This view is just half of the stairs.
As I climbed higher, I saw there are more steps.
This shrine is at the top of the stairs.
Looking back down.
This is the area where the castle stood.
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