Inuyama Castle

Inuyama Castle was built on the site of an ancient Shinto shrine and was rebuilt several times in the Muromachi period, with its current configuration largely the work of Oda Nobukatsu, Oda Nobunaga's son. The watchtower atop the tenshu is believed to be the oldest extant tenshu in Japan, dating back to the 1580s. It was the final obstacle against Oda Nobunaga's unification of Owari Province and was later captured by Toyotomi Hideyoshi and ruled by the Naruse clan under the Tokugawa shogunate. After the Meiji restoration, the castle was seized by the government and destroyed all of its auxiliary buildings except for the tenshu. In 2004, ownership of the castle was turned over to a non-profit foundation set up by Aichi Prefecture's Board of Education.