in 1205, a retainer of utsunomiya yoritsuna, shioya tomonari, moved to this area and changed his name to “kasama”. the original kasama castle was completed in 1235, but little is known of the kasama clan during the kamakura period and subsequent muromachi period. however, in 1591, kasama tsunaie refused the summons of his overlord, the utsunomiya, to join his forces against the later hōjō clan at the battle of odawara and was dispossessed of his castle. a retainer of the utsunomiya, tamanyu katsumasa initially replaced the kasama, but in 1598 the castle was taken by gamo satonari as part of a 30,000 "koku" domain. he made many modifications to modernize its layout. following the battle of sekigahara, tokugawa ieyasu assigned the castle to matsudaira yasushige in 1601.