Built in: 1414 by Okuyama Clan.
Class: Ruins
Takane Caslte is the restored middle age mountain castle located in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture. It is located on the top of the 420 tall mountain surrounded by rivers. It was used to be the very important location to protect Ina or souther Nagano from the invasion of the western Shizuoka or Enshu region.
This castle was constructed by Okuyama clan in 1414, and mostly maintained by Takeda Shingen. He used this castle as the entrance to the Shizuoka. In 1580, Shingen's Son, Katsuyori was lost at the battle of Nagashino by Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu, he lost this castle and Takane Castle was abandoned since then. It has a great view of the small valley.
The Takane-jo is a citadel built for border security on the top of Mt. Sankakuk Located at the northernmost point in western Shizuoka Prefecture. The top of Mt. Sankaku has 150m vertical drop and its altitude is 420m.
The citadel was built by the house of Okuyama, the local lord in the first half of the 15th century. Then, the house of Takeda repaired it between 1571 and 1576. The present Takane-jo's appearance is considered to have been completed at that time. The structure of the citadel has fences, in three areas called hon-kuruwa, ni-no-kuruwa and san-no-kuruwa that are layered from the south and the north. Each kuruwa is separated by fosses called horikiri. The east and the west side of the citadel are defended of landforms and artificial fosses.
Today, there is a restored castle that has a features of the Samurai era.