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Photo: Toto-tarou, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The first castle was built by Ikoma Chikamasa as a base to take over the western part of Sanuki Province. It was torn down during the "one castle per province policy" in 1615, but rebuilt in 1664 by new ruler Yamazaki Ieharu when the province was divided between two rulers. It is his castle that still stands and is counted as one of the 12 remaining original Japanese castles.
Marugame Castle is an Edo Period Japanese castle in the city of Marugame, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan. It is located in the center of Marugame city, in former Sanuki Province on the island of Shikoku. During the Edo Period, it was the center of Marugame Domain, ruled by the tozama Kyōgoku clan under the Tokugawa Shogunate. The castle site has been protected as a National Historic Site since 1953. Marugame Castle is one of only a dozen Japanese castles to have an original wooden 'tenshu' built before 1860.
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