Hamamatsu Castle
The Castle of Success
Thanks in no small part to the current NHK TV yearlong Taiga Drama series, Do Suru Ieyasu, Hamamatsu Castle in Shizuoka Prefecture is undergoing somewhat of a renaissance, with thousands of people flocking to the centrally located Pacific seaside town every weekend.
Originally called Hikuma Castle, Hamamatsu was built around 1532 on a small hill by Imagawa Sadatsuke. With the fall of the Imagawa clan after defeat by Oda Nobunaga at Okehazama in 1560, the Imagawa lands were divided by Tokugawa Ieyasu, and Takeda Shingen. The then 29-year-old Ieyasu took control of the fortress, and relocated his main force to Hamamatsu from Okazaki in 1570, and spent the next 17 years at Hamamatsu. The castle was strengthened and enlarged under Ieyasu, and became a teikakushi-styled layout, with the San-no-maru compound enveloping two sides of the Ni-no-maru, which in turn protected the flanks of the inner Honmaru. Hamamatsu castle covered an area 600m east to west, and 650m north to south. The south facing main gate faced the all important Tokaido Route.