Castle Atlas / No. 56
Takeda Castle
竹田城
Takeda Castle is the atlas’s clean warning against judging castles by towers: its fame comes from a mountain defensive footprint and stonework that can appear to float above morning mist.
History
What historically stood here
The Japan Castle Foundation records 竹田城 as a 山城 site in 朝来市, with the founding label 嘉吉年間（1441～44）、天正13年～慶長5年（1585～1600）. The listed builder or associated clan is 山名宗全、赤松広秀; principal lords are 太田垣氏、桑山氏、赤松氏.
The site’s history spans Muromachi, Sengoku, modern ruin preservation.
Today
What you are actually seeing today
You are seeing mountain castle ruins, stone walls, terraces and access paths. There is no original keep standing on the summit.
- Current condition
- Mountain castle ruins
- Terrain
- Yamajiro: mountain castle
- Condition note
- Mountain castle with earthworks or stonework only. Classified 2026-09-24 from the structured fields at https://cmeg.jp/w/castles/6014.
Architecture And Defense
How to read the place
- mountain terraces
- stone walls
- mist-view landscape
- summit defensive plan
Cultural-property notes in the Foundation row: 国指定史跡.
Visit
Present-day visitor information
Mountain-ruin access can be seasonal or weather-sensitive; check Asago/Takeda Castle official information.
- Address or access location
- 兵庫県朝来市和田山町竹田字古城山169
- Coordinates
- 35.300538, 134.828996
- Nearest useful station
- Takeda Station with seasonal bus or uphill walking access
- Estimated visit duration
- 2-4 hours
- Opening hours
- Check the official visitor source.
- Admission
- Check the official visitor source.
Seasonal planning note
- Mist-view conditions, winter weather and route access need checking before travel.
Nearby
Castles close enough to compare
Izushi and Arikoyama Castle
Hyogo / Original buildings, no keep
Fukuchiyama Castle
Kyoto / Rebuilt or replica keep
Kuroi Castle
Hyogo / Mountain castle ruins
Wakasa Oniga Castle
Tottori / Mountain castle ruins
Sources
Source and correction context
Identity, list membership, Foundation list number, municipality, basic classification and cultural-property notes are source-verified. Site-level visitor details require additional review unless this record is publishable. Foundation numbers are official list identifiers, not rankings. Coordinates use the Foundation-linked position-data KML and should be treated as visitor-planning coordinates rather than archaeological survey points.
Sources
- Japan's Top 100 and Continued Top 100 Castle Position Data, Japan Castle Foundation / Nippon Castle. Accessed 2026-09-04. Used for the 200 castle addresses and coordinates exposed through the public map linked from the Japan Castle Foundation castle-search page.
- Japan's Top 100 Castles, Japan Castle Foundation. Accessed 2026-09-04. Used for the official identity, list number, list membership, location municipality, castle type, founding label, builders, principal lords, cultural-property notes, and keep-status notes for the original 100-castle selection.
- 100 Fine Castles of Japan and Continued 100 Fine Castles of Japan, Wikipedia contributors. Accessed 2026-09-04. Used only as a secondary cross-check for common English castle names; Japan Castle Foundation records remain the corpus source of truth.
- Nippon Shiro Meguri castle records: keep structure, remains and rebuilt structures, Nippon Shiro Meguri (cmeg.jp). Accessed 2026-09-24. Structured fields for each of the 200 castles, used to classify what stands at each site today. The linked record for each castle is its coordinate source.