Musashi Province. A brother of Hōjō Ujinao was made castellan, followed by his brother Ujifusa in 1585. However, in 1590 during the Battle of Odawara, Toyotomi Hideyoshi dispatched an army of 20,000 men, who quickly overwhelmed the 2000 defenders of the castle. Iwatsuki then came under the control of Tokugawa Ieyasu, who assigned the 20,000 koku Iwatsuki Domain to one of his most trusted retainers, Kōriki Kiyonaga. Over the next 100 years, the domain came under the control of a large number of fudai daimyō clans, including the Aoyama, Abe, Itakura, Toda, Matsudaira, Ogasawara and Nagai clans before coming under the rule of the Ōoka clan, who held the domain until the Meiji restoration. In 1775, a great fire under the time of Ōoka Tadayoshi destroyed the castle and most of the surrounding town. The central donjon of the castle again burned down in 1865 and Ōoka Tadayuki lacked the financial capacity to rebuild it. The Ōoka clan sided with the pro-imperial forces in the Boshin War. Following the Meiji restoration, most of the castle structures were dismantled, and through land reclamation much of the former castle area is now covered by the modern city. The remaining, mostly marshy areas are now the Iwatsuki Castle Park, which contains some remnants of the earthen works and moats, as well as two of the original gates of the castle which were preserved by private owners, and relocated to their present locations. The park is a noted venue for sakura blossoms in spring. Literature References External links Iwatsuki Castle Jcastle Profile Castles in Saitama Prefecture Abe clan Fujii-Matsudaira clan Go-Hōjō clan Itakura clan Ogasawara clan Ōta clan Uesugi clan Former castles in Japan Ruined castles in Japan