The area around Lake Suwa had been under the control of the
Suwa clan since at least the early
Heian period; however, the Suwa were conquered in the
Sengoku period by
Takeda Shingen, who annexed the area to his territories. Takashima Castle was ruled by a succession of Takeda generals (beginning with
Itagaki Nobukata) until the defeat and annihilation of the
Takeda clan at the
Battle of Nagashino in 1575. The area then came under the control of
Oda Nobunaga, who assigned it to one of his generals,
Kawajiri Hidetaka. After Nobunaga was assassinated in the
Honnō-ji incident, the territory came under the control of
Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who assigned
Hineno Takayoshi as
daimyō of
Suwa Domain.
Hineno Takayoshi began a complete reconstruction of the castle, which was completed by his son, Hineno Yoshiakira. The Hineno were reassigned in 1601, and the domain was returned to the hands of the Suwa clan by
Tokugawa Ieyasu. The Suwa remained in control of the castle until the
Meiji restoration. Following the establishment of the
Meiji government and the
abolition of the han system, the remaining structures of the castle were dismantled in 1875, leaving only the stone foundations. A
Shinto Shrine dedicated to the war dead was established within the grounds in 1900 and the area of the Second and Third Baileys was built over as a residential district. The present donjon,
yagura and gates are all reconstructions, which were completed in 1970. == Literature ==