The Tōyama clan were rulers of southeastern
Mino Province since at least the
Kamakura period. Naegi Castle was constructed in 1532 by Tōyama Naokado, the second son of Tōyama Kagetomo, the lord of
Iwamura Castle and husband of
Oda Nobunaga’s sister, Otsuya no Kata. His daughter was adopted by Nobunaga, and married to
Takeda Katsuyori in an effort to stave off Takeda designs on Mino. After Iwamura Castle fell to the Takeda, Nobunaga considered Naegi Castle to be the most important defense against the
Takeda clan. However, following the assassination of Nobunaga in 1583 at the
Honnō-ji Incident, the castle fell into the hands of
Mori Nagayoshi, one of
Toyotomi Hideyoshi's generals. The Mori assigned
Kawajiri Hidenaga as castellan and the Tōyama clan fled to
Hamamatsu, where they went into the service of
Tokugawa Ieyasu. At the
Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, Kawajiri sided with the pro-Toyotomi Western Army under
Ishida Mitsunari, and was killed in battle. Ieyasu sent
Tōyama Tomomasa, the son of its former castellan to retake Naegi Castle. Afterwards, he was confirmed as a
daimyō over his clan's ancestral holdings, which marked the start of
Naegi Domain under the
Tokugawa shogunate. The Tōyama clan remained at the castle through 12 generations until the
Meiji Restoration. Naegi Castle was abandoned and dismantled in 1871, with its furnishing and most of the buildings’ timbers being auctioned off to help pay off the domain's massive debt. Today, a restoration of the
main keep strut-work now serves as a lookout over Nakatsugawa and the
Kiso River. There is a museum below the castle site with a diorama showing what the castle looked like before its destruction. ==Description==