After TOKUGAWA Ieyasu defeated his opponent TAKEDA Katsuyori – successor to TAKEDA Shingen – in the Battle of Nagashino (1575), he commissioned the construction of a castle, which was completed in 1582. Alongside the castle in the capital Edo a few years later, Kôfu-jô was one of the most impregnable defence structures in the Kantô region. In the following 250 years (= Edo period), only those who had a close and intimate relationship with the Shôgun were considered as castle lords.
other castles
