Tatebayashi Castle

Tatebayashi, Japan, Japan

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Tatebayashi Castle is a flatland Japanese castle in the city of Tatebayashi, southern Gunma Prefecture, in the northern Kantō region, originally founded in the 15th century by the Akai clan on a strategic site near the Tone River and later developed into a major Edo-period castle town.

According to local legend, Akai Terumitsu founded the castle after a fox he had saved brushed its tail in the dirt to show him where to build, and the site was then known as “Obiki-jo” (dragging-tail castle). After the Tokugawa seizure of Kantō in 1590, Ieyasu’s key retainer Sakakibara Yasumasa rebuilt and expanded the castle and laid out a bustling castle town, and throughout the Edo period Gautō was held only by extremely important figures, including Sakakibara and later close Tokugawa allies such as Tsunayoshi Tokugawa, the future fifth shōgun, who was lord from 1661 to 1680 though he resided in Edo.