Takatenjin Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture de Shizuoka

"Whoever holds Takatenjin holds Tōtōmi": this saying sums up the stakes of this mountain castle rising on Mount Kakuō, south-east of Kakegawa. Its two summits, linked by a narrow saddle, form a Z-shaped plan ringed by cliffs, terraces, dry moats and earthen ramparts, without a single stone wall. A stronghold of the Imagawa and then the Tokugawa, Takatenjin became the object of a bitter struggle with the Takeda clan in the 16th century: Takeda Shingen failed to take it, but his son Katsuyori won it in 1574 after a long siege and extended the defences towards the western peak. Tokugawa Ieyasu then encircled it with six forts and starved it out; in 1581 its commander Okabe Motonobu led a final sortie in which almost the entire garrison perished, and the fortress was abandoned. Today a Shinto shrine stands on the summit and hiking trails maintained by the city run through the remains, designated a National Historic Site since 1975 and listed in 2017 among the Continued Top 100 Japanese Castles.