Hakusan Castle
Hakusan Castle was a Heian period yamashiro-style Japanese castle located in what is now part of the city of Nirasaki, Yamanashi prefecture. It was the primary fortress of the warlord Takeda Nobuyoshi, ancestor of the Takeda clan. The site has been protected by the central government as a National Historic Site since 2001.Background
Hakusan Castle was built by Takeda Nobuyoshi, the son of Minamoto no Kiyomitsu of Yato Castle and the progenitor of the Takeda clan. Nobumitsu's residence was located just over a kilometer away and takes its name from the Hakusan Jinja, a Shinto shrine preexisting on this mountain. Little is known of the history of Hakusan Castle, other than that it was completely rebuilt by Aoki Nobutane as part the outer defensive line of Kai Province.
After the fall of the Takeda clan, the castle came under the control of Tokugawa Ieyasu, who used it as a stronghold against the Odawara Hōjō in his struggle for control of the province. The castle was under the control of Yamadera Nobumasa for period, and disappeared from history in the Kanbun era of the Edo Period.
