Takashima Castle is located in the town Suwa, central Nagano Prefecture. At the end of the Edo period, Takashima Castle was the home to the Suwa Clan. The castle is also known as “The Floating Castle of Suwa” or Shimazaki Castle.
Takashima Castle is originally built on a peninsula extending into Lake Suwa, with the lake itself forming part of its moats. This means that only the side facing the shore had to have strong ramparts. During the Edo period, increasing sedimentation of Lake Suwa left the castle surrounded by land, so the site is now located the middle of the modern city of Suwa. Only the north and east side of the moat has been preserved. In 1970, some of the castle structures were reconstructed, but are not historically accurate.
Today, the area of the Takashima Castle is open to the public and contains a Japanese landscape garden. My visit was in the early spring and it was very beautiful seeing the garden wake up from winter time.
