Anouzumi stone walls

In the past there were groups of stone wall masons who worked in an area called Anou at the foot of Mount Hiei. These masons were known as anoushū and the stone walls they built by simply piling stones in their natural, unprocessed form on top of one another came to be called anouzumi. Anouzumi stone walls are extremely sturdy, as demonstrated by the fact that the anouzumi stone walls at Mount Hiei were the only structures that remained fully intact during the Siege of Mount Hiei in 1571. It is said that even Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582) was amazed by the durability of the stone walls.