Kakegawa Castle

Kakegawa Castle 掛川城
Kakegawa, Shizuoka prefecture, Japan
Reconstructed Keep of Kakegawa Castle
The Ni-no-Maru Goten
Coordinates	Coordinates: 34°46′32″N 138°00′53″E / 34.775417°N 138.014733°E / 34.775417; 138.014733
Type	Hirayama-style Japanese castle
Site information
Open to the public	yes
Condition	reconstruction from 1994
Site history
Built	1469-1487,
Built by	Asahina Yasuhiro, Yamauchi Kazutoyo, others
In use	Edo period
Demolished	1869

Kakegawa Castle (掛川城, Kakegawa-jō^?) is a hirayama-style Japanese castle. It was the seat of various fudai daimyō who ruled over Kakegawa Domain, Tōtōmi Province, in what is now central Kakegawa, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan.

The first Kakegawa Castle was built by Asahina Yasuhiro in the Bunmei era (1469–1487), a retainer of the warlord Imagawa Yoshitada to consolidate his holdings over Tōtōmi Province. The castle remained in the hands of the succeeding generations of the Asahina clan. After the defeat of the Imagawa clan at the Battle of Okehazama, the former Imagawa territories were divided between Takeda Shingen of Kai and Tokugawa Ieyasu of Mikawa. Kakegawa Castle was surrendered to Tokugawa forces in 1568 by Asahina Yasutomo without resistance. The surrounding area remained a territory contested between the Tokugawa and Takeda for many years; however, Kakegawa Castle remained in Tokugawa hands until the fall of the Takeda clan.

After the Battle of Odawara in 1590 and the rise to power of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Tokugawa Ieyasu was forced to trade his domains in the Tōkai region for the Kantō region instead. Kakegawa was relinquished to Toyotomi retainer Yamauchi Kazutoyo as the center of a new 51,000 koku (later 59,000 koku) domain. Yamauchi Kazutoyo completely rebuilt the castle per the latest contemporary designs, and the current layout and much of the stone walls and moats date from his period.