, also known as Takatoya Castle and Suisho Castle, is a ''yamashiro'' (

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

located on a mountain) situated in Suwa,

Nagano Prefecture is a landlocked prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Nagano Prefecture has a population of 2,052,493 () and has a geographic area of . Nagano Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture to the north, Gunma Prefecture to the ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. The castle was constructed sometime in the fifteenth century by the Kuwabara clan. By the time it came under the control of the Suwa clan, it had become a satellite castle to Uehara Castle. When forces of the

Takeda clan The was a Japanese samurai clan active from the late Heian period until the late 16th century. The clan was historically based in Kai Province in present-day Yamanashi Prefecture. The clan reached its greatest influence under the rule of Taked ...

arrived in the area in 1542, the lord of Uehara Castle,

Suwa Yorishige (1516–1544) was a Japanese samurai and head of the Suwa clan. He was defeated by Takeda Shingen, and his daughter Suwa Goryōnin (諏訪御料人, real name unknown) was taken as Shingen's concubine. She later gave birth to the Takeda clan heir T ...

, retreated to Kuwabara Castle, which was soon surrounded by Takeda soldiers. The castle fell after a two-day

siege A siege is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition warfare, attrition, or a well-prepared assault. This derives from la, sedere, lit=to sit. Siege warfare is a form of constant, low-intensity con ...

. Yorishige and his two brothers were taken to Kofu. A month later, they were forced to commit seppuku.

References

{{coord, 36, 01, 33, N, 138, 08, 23, E, region:JP_type:landmark_source:kolossus-frwiki, display=title Castles in Nagano Prefecture