Once the base of the Tottori han which ruled over the area in the Edo period, Tottori-jō was first established in 1545 as a yamashiro (mountain castle) built into the side of Mt. Kyushō. The site is most famous historically for the siege it endured in 1581 under the forces of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, when its defenders held out for 200 days to the point of starvation (even cannibalism, according to some sources). The defending commander, Kikkawa Tsuneie, committed seppuku (ritual suicide) upon its surrender. The surviving castle was dismantled in 1879 following the Meiji Restoration. Apart from one gate, nothing other than the stone walls remains of the original fortress today, but its grounds have been made into Tottori's present Kyushō-kōen, which overlooks the city from the east.