Karatsu, Saga
Due to its proximity to mainland Asia, Karatsu has long been known as a stopover to Korea and China.Under ritsuryō, the current city area was part of the Hizen Province. In 1591, on the coast of the northern part of the city (formerly the town of Chinzei), Nagoya Castle was constructed. The following year, it became the location from which the Imjin War was launched by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. In the middle of 1593, Terasawa Hirotaka created the Karatsu domain and began governing it. In 1602, replacing Nagoya Castle, Karatsu Castle was constructed in what is now the heart of Karatsu. The tower of Karatsu Castle was built in 1966 .
Utsunomiya Castle
Utsunomiya Castle was first built in the Heian period by either Fujiwara Hidesato or Fujiwara Sōen around the year 1063. This castle was built on a small hill south of Utsunomiya Futarayama Jinja, the "ichinomiya" of Shimotsuke Province, on a juncture of the Ōshū Kaidō and the Nikkō Kaidō highways. Fujiwara Sōen played an important role in the Former Nine Years War and was the ancestor of the Utsunomiya clan, who dominated the area for the next 500 years, through the Kamakura and Muromachi periods. During the Sengoku period, the castle was greatly enlarged, enclosing an area over four kilometers in diameter with a series of concentric moats and high earthen ramparts, and came to be renowned as one of the seven major castles of the Kantō region. The Utsunomiya successfully defended the castle against repeated attacks by the Odawara Hōjō clan. However, the Utsunomiya clan was dispossessed of their holdings in 1597 by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and the castle came under the control of the Gamo clan, based in Aizu.
With the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate, Utsunomiya Castle became the center of Utsunomiya Domain, ruled by a succession of daimyo clans, beginning with the Okudaira in 1601.