Kamiiso

Kamiiso's coast on southern Hokkaido includes the medieval stronghold of Mobetsu, near the mouth of the Moheji River. The fort occupied the end of a hill on the river's left bank, overlooking Hakodate Bay. Its larger southern enclosure and smaller northern enclosure were separated by a natural ravine; earthworks surrounded three sides of each and also divided their interiors.

Local historical tradition dates the foundation to 1443, when Andō Morisue crossed from Tsugaru after the Nanbu took his positions at Tosaminato and Kodomari. Andō Masasue and later Mobetsu, or Shimoguni, Iemasa held the fort. During Koshamain's uprising in 1457, most of the Japanese strongholds on the southern coast fell. Mobetsu and Hanazawa at Kaminokuni are said to have been the two that survived. The substantial earthworks place this stretch of the coast within the history of competing armed settlements and Ainu resistance, long before the modern name Kamiiso came to describe the surrounding town.