Numata Castle, located in Numata, northern Gunma Prefecture, Japan, has a rich and complex history. During the late Edo period, it served as the residence of the Toki clan, who ruled the Numata Domain. Over the centuries, the castle changed hands multiple times and was the site of significant battles during the Sengoku period.
Origins and Sengoku Period Conflicts
The Numata clan originally controlled the region, with Numata Akiyasu constructing a fortress on the site in 1532. However, in 1580, Sanada Masayuki, a vassal of Takeda Katsuyori, seized the castle. The Numata clan attempted to reclaim their stronghold the following year but suffered devastating losses.
The castle then became a focal point of conflict between the Sanada clan and the Odawara Hōjō clan. In 1589, Toyotomi Hideyoshi sought to mediate the dispute by awarding Numata Castle to the Hōjō and granting nearby Nagurumi Castle to the Sanada. However, Hōjō castellan Inomata Kuninori rejected the settlement and launched an attack on the Sanada. After the fall of the Hōjō at the Battle of Odawara in 1590, the Sanada regained undisputed control over Numata.
Expansion and the Edo Period
In 1597, Sanada Nobuyuki undertook an ambitious reconstruction of Numata Castle, expanding its defenses with stone walls, a grand five-story donjon, and multiple three-story yagura (watchtowers). In 1656, Numata became a separate domain from the Sanada stronghold at Ueda Castle. However, in 1681, Sanada Nobutoshi was dispossessed by the Tokugawa shogunate due to financial misrepresentation, leading to the castle’s destruction.
The domain was later reinstated in 1703 and awarded to Honda Masanaga, who partially rebuilt Numata Castle. While some moats and earthen embankments were restored, neither a new donjon nor yagura were constructed. The castle later came under the rule of the Kuroda clan before being transferred to the Toki clan in 1742. From this period onward, the ruling families resided in a residence within the castle’s third bailey, and the site functioned more as a jin’ya (administrative headquarters) than a military fortress.
Preservation and Legacy
In 1912, Kume Tamenosuke, a former samurai of the Toki clan, purchased the castle site. He later donated it to the town of Numata in 1926, transforming it into a public park. Today, the park features the Ubukata House, an Edo-period structure that once served as a pharmacy in the Numata castle town. Designated as an Important Cultural Property, it now operates as a local history museum, showcasing artifacts, including a scale model of Numata Castle during the Sanada era.
Recognizing its historical significance, Numata Castle was included in the Continued Top 100 Japanese Castles list in 2017. Although little remains of the original structure, its legacy endures as a testament to the region’s turbulent past and the shifting power dynamics of feudal Japan.
See also
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Amagasaki Castle
The founding year of Amagasaki Castle is traditionally considered to be 1617, when Toda Ujikané built his castle here, making it the administrative center of the Amagasaki Domain. However, as early as the Sengoku period, a fortress built by the Hosokawa clan already stood on this site. After the fall of Itami Castle in 1579, Araki Murashige—formerly a vassal of Oda Nobunaga who had rebelled against him—fled to this earlier castle.
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Hiroshima Castle
Mōri Terumoto (1553–1625) was the grandson and rightful heir of the renowned Mōri Motonari. When Terumoto became the head of the Mōri clan in 1571, he inherited vast territories covering a large part of the San’in and San’yō regions in western Honshū. In addition, the Mōri clan possessed the largest and most technologically advanced naval fleet of its time.
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Fukuyama Castle
After the defeat of Toyotomi Hideyori’s supporters in the Osaka Campaigns of 1614–1615, many clans in Japan still remained not fully loyal to the Tokugawa shogunate, especially in the western Chūgoku region. Mizuno Katsunari (1564–1651), a cousin of Tokugawa Ieyasu, became the first of the Tokugawa house’s close retainers, the so-called fudai daimyō, to be relocated to this strategically important area.
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Tiba Castle
The founder of the Chiba clan is considered to be Chiba Tsunesige (1083–1180), who in 1126 moved his residence to the Inohana area and built a strongly fortified stronghold there. Although Tsunesige himself came from the Taira clan, the Chiba clan later supported Minamoto no Yoritomo, the future founder of the first shogunate.
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Sunomata Castle
Oda Nobunaga, as part of his “final solution” to the conflict with the Saitō clan, conceived the construction of a fort in the Sunomata area, which was intended to serve as a forward base for an attack on Inabayama Castle (later renamed Gifu). Sunomata was a swampy area located between Ogaki Castle, a stronghold of the Oda clan, and Inabayama, the main fortress of the Saitō clan. Earlier attempts to build fortifications in this area, carried out by Oda generals Sakuma Nobumori and Shibata Katsuie, had all ended in failure. After that, the task was entrusted to the young vassal Kinoshita Tokichirō, who later became known as Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
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Shibata Castle
The exact time when structures first appeared on the site of the present-day castle is unknown; however, it is generally believed that the first fortified buildings were constructed here during the Muromachi period, when these lands were controlled by the Shibata clan.
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Okayama Castle
According to a number of accounts, the earliest fortifications on the site of present-day Okayama Castle appeared as early as the 14th century and were built by the Nawa clan. The Asahigawa River was used as a natural defensive barrier, protecting one side of the fortifications.
In the early 16th century, the Kanamitsu clan constructed a new castle here, which at the time was known as Ishiyama. In 1573, it came under the control of the Ukita clan, after which Ukita Naoie (1529–1582) launched large-scale reconstruction efforts. He did not live to see the work completed, and construction was continued by his son Hideie. -
Nagahama Castle
Hashiba, later known as Toyotomi Hideyoshi, received Odani Castle and the surrounding lands from Oda Nobunaga after the defeat of the Azai clan. However, Odani Castle was located high in the mountains, which made it poorly suited for the effective administration of the territory. For this reason, in 1575 Hideyoshi began constructing a new castle in the village of Imahama on the shore of Lake Biwa. Taking the character naga from Nobunaga’s name, he renamed both the village and the new castle Nagahama.
