is a "yamashiro" located on Mount Iwabitsu in Higashiagatsuma

Higashiagatsuma, Gunma

is a town located in Gunma Prefecture, Japan.The town was created on March 27, 2006 by the merger of the town of Agatsuma, and the village of Azuma, both from Agatsuma District.-Geography:...

, Gunma Prefecture

Gunma Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located in the northwest corner of the Kantō region on Honshu island. Its capital is Maebashi.- History :The remains of a Paleolithic man were found at Iwajuku, Gunma Prefecture, in the early 20th century and there is a public museum there.Japan was without horses until...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

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History

Iwabitsu Castle was built in the fifteenth century by Azuma Taro Sukefusa of the Takeda clan. It later came under control of the Saitō clan

Saito clan

The was a Japanese clan in Mino Province during the Sengoku period in the 16th century. According to records, the Saitō clan descended from the Fujiwara clan...

 (retainers of the Uesugi clan

Uesugi clan

The was a Japanese samurai clan, descended from the Fujiwara clan and particularly notable for their power in the Muromachi and Sengoku periods ....

). The castle once again came under control of the Takeda Clan following a battle. Sanada Yukitaka

Sanada Yukitaka

was a daimyō of Shinano Province who became one of Takeda Shingen's 'Twenty-four Generals' , submitting to become Takeda's vassal after a long and difficult struggle against him....

 became lord after this seizure. The Sanada clan

Sanada clan

The was a Japanese clan which rose to prominence in the Sengoku period. During the Edo era, the Sanada ruled the Matsushiro Domain, where they remained until the Meiji Restoration.-Sengoku period:...

, of whom Yuritaka was a member, retained control of the area after the Takeda Clan (with which the Sanada Clan was at first affiliated) collapsed by changing their loyalty to whichever clan seemed to have the upper hand. In 1615, however, Shōgun

Shogun

A was one of the hereditary military dictators of Japan from 1192 to 1867. In this period, the shoguns, or their shikken regents , were the de facto rulers of Japan though they were nominally appointed by the emperor...

 Tokugawa Ieyasu

Tokugawa Ieyasu

 was the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan , which ruled from the Battle of Sekigahara  in 1600 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Ieyasu seized power in 1600, received appointment as shogun in 1603, abdicated from office in 1605, but...

 declared that each province

Provinces of Japan

Before the modern prefecture system was established, the land of Japan was divided into tens of kuni , usually known in English as provinces. Each province was divided into gun ....

 could have only one castle. As a result, the Sanada Clan dismantled Iwabitsu castle, preferring to instead retain Ueda Castle

Ueda Castle

Ueda Castle was the original home of the Sanada clan, built by Sanada Masayuki.It was this castle that the Sanada defended twice from the Tokugawa, first in 1583 and again in 1600, putting up a very impressive defense both of those times....

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An interesting footnote of Iwabitsu Castles's history is that the legendary samurai

Samurai

is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...

 Karasawa Genba

Karasawa Genba

was a samurai of the Sengoku period, in the 16th century of the common era, who served as an important retainer of the Sanada clan.Genba was allegedly born in Sawatari, Shinano province, and was originally an officer of Iwabitsu Castle....

was an officer at the castle.

Today, only ruins remain.