During the
Sengoku period, Takagi Sadatoshi was a vassal of
Saito Dosan, followed by
Oda Nobunaga and
Oda Nobukatsu. After the
Battle of Komaki and Nagakute, he was deprived of his holdings by
Toyotomi Hideyoshi and forced to flee into exile in
Kai Province. The Takagi territories in
Mino Province were given to
Seki Kazumasa, who built Tara Castle in either the
Tenshō era (1573-93) or the
Keichō era (1593-1615). During the
Battle of Sekigahara, he served the Eastern Army and was awarded with a domain in
Ise Province. In the meanwhile, Takagi Sadatoshi had also become a vassal of
Tokugawa Ieyasu and was allowed to recover his ancestral home after the departure of the Seki clan. He divided the Takagi clan into three branches: the western (Nishitakagi) branch had a
kokudaka of 2300
koku, the eastern (Higashitakagi) has 1000
koku, and the northern (Kitatakagi) also had 1000
koku, and each of the three branches constructed a ''jin'ya
residence at the same location in 1601. The three branches were regarded by the Tokugawa shogunate as a single entity, and despite its hatamoto
status, the clan was subject to the Sankin-kōtai'' requirement of having to make a trip to
Edo every other year to attend the Shogun's court. The site of the Nishitakagi jin'ya is located on a
river terrace at an elevation of 130 meters, next to the
Makita River, a tributary of the
Ibi River. An important role played by the clan was that of
Kawadori, which gave them control of all traffic on the
Kiso Three Rivers. The ''jin'ya
was constructed with the Ise Kaidō, the main highway to Ise Province, on its east side. It was protected by extensive stone walls, much of which date from the earlier Tara Castle. Within the compound was the main residence on the north side, and a secondary residence on the south side, with the clan cemetery in the west. Most of the structures burned down in a fire in 1832. The main gate was restored in 1852 and the mansion itself in 1896, although on the site of the former secondary residence. Archaeological excavations have indicated that the underground remains of the original foundations are well preserved. The sites of the smaller jin'ya'' for the Higashitakagi and Kitatakagi branches have been lost to encroachment of residences and farmlands, and are not covered in the National Historic Site designation. The ''jin'ya'' is now the , which introduces the nature, history, and culture of the Kamiishizu area and which stores the more than 100,000 ancient documents that have been handed down by the Takagi clan. ==See also==