He who controls Takatenjin will control Enshu ~MAR,2025 Tour of Touen Castles~

Like many others, I have been collecting stamps from the 100 Great Castles and the 100 Continued Great Castles for about three years. At places where you can get stamps, you often see old men (including me) happily opening their stamp books, but since they are located in all prefectures, it is a luxurious hobby that is difficult to pursue unless you have time and money. Some of them are mountain castles that remain from the Middle Ages, so you should go while you can still walk. Totomi, which occupies the western part of Shizuoka Prefecture, was an area of fierce battles between the Takeda and Tokugawa and has many famous castles, but Kakegawa Castle has been designated as a 100 Great Castle, and Hamamatsu Castle, Takatenjin Castle, and Suwahara Castle are three castles designated as part of the 100 Continued Great Castles. The castle tower of Kakegawa Castle is the first wooden restored castle tower in Japan.

Shingen's campaign to advance westward began in the autumn of 1572, and although he won the Battle of Mikatagahara at the end of the year, he had to halt the campaign due to ill health, and died the following spring. The Takeda clan's conquest was left to Katsuyori, but for the next two years, until he was defeated by the combined forces of Oda and Tokugawa in the Battle of Nagashino (spring 1575), Katsuyori advanced deep into Totomi, capturing Takatenjin Castle and giving the Takeda clan the largest territory of their time. After Nagashino, the Takeda clan was completely on the defensive, but Ieyasu did not forcefully attack Takatenjin Castle, instead placing six forts around it to cut off its supply lines.

It is a steep mountain castle that even Shingen could not take, and from the main citadel you can see the fertile fields of central Enshu and Higamine Fort, one of the six forts. The castle held out until 1581, the year before the downfall of the Takeda clan, but with supplies cut off and no prospect of reinforcements, the castle lord Okabe Motonobu led his soldiers in a charge against the besieging Tokugawa army and was killed in battle.

Yokosuka Castle is a modern castle built in the center of Enshu by Ieyasu, and has access to the sea. After Katsuyori captured Takatenjin Castle, it was used as a base for encircling the castle. The castle's stone walls are made of round stones brought from the Tenryu River, and are called Tamaishi-gaki (tamaishi walls).

In the first place, Takeda and Tokugawa made a secret agreement to each occupy Suruga and Totomi when the Imagawa clan was destroyed, but the agreement was soon broken. Shingen restored the Rinzai sect Nomanji Temple, which had been washed away by the flooding of the Oi River and fallen into disrepair, and built Oyama Castle on the adjacent hill as the first base for the conquest of Enshu. The castle later served as a supply base for the isolated Takatenjin Castle, and fell in the midst of the downfall of the Takeda clan (1582).

After Shingen's death, Katsuyori built Suwahara Castle on the west bank of the Oi River, and used it as a strategic base for the invasion of Totomi Province, alongside Oyama Castle, and took Takatenjin Castle, mentioned above. Both Oyama Castle and Suwahara Castle were built by the master castle builder Baba Nobuharu, and you can see the round horse-shedding and crescent-shaped moat, which are characteristic of Koshu-style castle building. Katsuyori rejected the advice of his retainers and went ahead with the Battle of Nagashino, losing many soldiers, including Baba Nobuharu. Only three months later, Suwahara Castle was taken by the Tokugawa army, and the Takeda clan suffered a disadvantageous situation thereafter, with only Oyama Castle and Takatenjin Castle remaining. Katsuyori was probably troubled by the impatience of Nobunaga, who had destroyed the Azai and Asakura clans, expelled Shogun Yoshiaki from Kyoto, and accelerated his conquest of the Kinai region, as well as the pressure that came with his father Shingen's great fame. It was exactly three years and one day before the castle was taken.

While thinking about the battles between the Takeda and Tokugawa, I also stopped by the ruins of a nearby castle. Sagara Castle was built by Tanuma Okitsugu, but Matsudaira Sadanobu, in a fit of resentment, overthrew him and completely destroyed the castle, which had only been built for eight years. Ken Watanabe plays Tanuma Okitsugu in the NHK Taiga drama "Berabou" this year. At the site of the main citadel is the Makinohara City Museum, which was holding a special exhibition on the drama.

Almost nothing remains of the castle, but the mountain gate was sold and relocated to Daikeiji Temple in Fujieda City.

Also, the stone wall in front of the gate of the Okane family home, an important cultural property in the former Sagara domain, was also moved from Sagara Castle. The house is now about 100m inland from Route 150, but at the time, the Tanuma Highway, which ran from Sagara towards Yaizu, passed in front of the house. The family's ancestor, Okane Sadatsuna, was a vassal of Shibata Katsuie, but had a feud with Katsuie and followed Hideyoshi, playing an active role in the Battle of Shizugatake. He later served the Tokugawa family as a hatamoto (director of the Tokugawa shogunate), and settled in the area as a shoya (big village headman) before it became the Tanuma domain. The Edo mansion from the hatamoto period can be seen on maps from that time, and the peaceful life of a farmer overlooking the Enshu Nada Sea must have been attractive, even if it meant giving up samurai status.

Returning to Suruga after crossing the Oi River, between Fujieda and Yaizu, there is the site of the former Tanaka Domain castle. It was unique in shape, with three moats surrounding it in roughly concentric circles, but after the Meiji Restoration, the castle site was completely demolished and is now an ordinary residential area, with the site of the main citadel now an elementary school. It was strategically located as a subsidiary castle to the west of Sunpu Castle, where Ieyasu spent his later years, and successive fudai daimyo were stationed there until the end of the Edo period.

The year after he destroyed the Toyotomi clan in the Battle of Osaka, Ieyasu went falcon hunting and then stopped by Tanaka Castle, where he became ill after eating sea bream tempura and passed away. There are various theories about the cause of Ieyasu's death, but I can sympathize with the story that he did what he liked, ate what he liked, and passed away peacefully without any worries. That must have been what happened.