Takasaki Castle

Takasaki Castle (高崎城, Takasaki-jō) is a Japanese castle located in Takasaki, southern Gunma Prefecture, Japan. At the end of the Edo period, Tatebayashi Castle was home to a branch of the Matsudaira clan, daimyō of Takasaki Domain, but the castle was ruled by a large number of different clans over its history. The castle was also known as "Wada-jō" (和田城).

During the late Heian period, the area around Takasaki was controlled by the Wada clan, and Wada Yoshinobu built a fortified manor on the banks of the Karasu River. During the Muromachi period, the Wada came under the service of the Uesugi clan, who held the post of Kantō kanrei; however in 1561, Wada Narishige, incensed over the appointment of Uesugi Kenshin to the post, defected to the Takeda clan. His son, Wada Nobunari, in turn came into the service of the Odawara Hōjō clan. During the Battle of Odawara in 1590, Toyotomi Hideyoshi dispatched an army led by Uesugi Kagekatsu and Maeda Toshiie and destroyed Wada Castle.

After Tokugawa Ieyasu took control over the Kantō region in 1590, he assigned Ii Naomasa, one of his most trusted Four Generals to nearby Minowa Castle. However, in 1597, Ieyasu ordered Ii Naomasa to construct a new on the site of the ruins of Wada Castle, as the location controlled a strategic junction connecting the Nakasendō with the Mikuni Kaidō highways. Ii Naomasa relocated to the site in 1598, renaming it Takasaki. Naomasa bringing with him the population of Minowa to form the nucleus of a new castle town. Following the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, the Ii clan was relocated to Omi Province, and Takasaki Castle passed to a succession of fudai daimyō clans, notably the Sakai, Andō and several branches of the Matsudaira clan.

The Ōkōchi Matsudaira took up residence in 1695, and except for a brief hiatus from 1710-1717, remained in control of the castle until the end of the Edo period.

In 1619, Andō Shigenobu began an ambitious reconstruction project, which lasted for 77 years over the following three generations, which included a three-story donjon in the center and two-story yagura at each of the cardinal directions. Shōgun Tokugawa Iemitsu exiled his younger brother Tokugawa Tadanaga to Takasaki Castle in 1633, and ordered him to commit seppuku here in December of the same year.

Text adapted from “Takasaki Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Takasaki Castle ranks #2,365 of 8,133 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #143 of the 297 mapped in Japan. Founded 1597, it is older than 34% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 755 atlas entries founded in the 16th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 2,782 times in the last 60 days, more than 74% of the atlas. 2 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Sagamihara, 90 km away. See how Japan compares in the castle statistics.

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