Nansō Satomi Hakkenden: Tateyama to Koga

The story opens at Takida Castle, home in the novel to Kanamari Mitsuhiro, the usurper Yamashita Sadakane and, later, Satomi Yoshizane. In 1441, after losing the Yūki war, Yoshizane flees to Awa and kills Sadakane. Sadakane's wife Tamazusa is executed, but not before she curses the Satomi. The real castle site stands on a hill 140 metres high, and a bronze statue of Princess Fuse and the dog Yatsufusa now stands there.

Location precision: The novel's Takida Castle is a fictional retelling; the pin marks the real castle ruins in Minamibōsō.

In 1457 Anzai Kagetsura of Tateyama attacks the starving Satomi. With the castle about to fall, Yoshizane jokes to his dog Yatsufusa that he can have his daughter Fuse if he brings Kagetsura's head. Yatsufusa returns with it. The novel's Anzai castle is not the real Tateyama Castle, which the historical Satomi occupied only at the end of the Sengoku period. The donjon you can climb was reconstructed in 1982, modelled on Inuyama Castle, and its interior holds Hakkenden exhibits. Cherry blossoms line the park in spring.

Location precision: The novel's Tateyama is Anzai's older castle; the pin marks the later Satomi castle, now a Hakkenden museum.

Visitor guidance: The reconstructed donjon stands in a park known for cherry blossoms; inside are mainly Hakkenden exhibits.

Mount Tomi appears in the novel as Toyama, home of Princess Fuse. Keeping her word to the dog, she goes up the mountain with Yatsufusa, spends her days reciting sutras and refuses his advances. In autumn 1458 her eight great prayer beads scatter, and Daisuke becomes the monk Chūdai. Today a cave called Fuse-hime's retreat draws pilgrims, though it was linked to the story later, and a stone near it stands in for Yatsufusa's grave, put up in the Taishō era.

Visitor guidance: Mount Tomi has two peaks, the higher 349.5 m; a hiking trail leads from the foot of the mountain.

In summer 1478 Shino, aged 18, is sent to the Koga kubō, the lord of Koga. He is driven onto the roof of the Hōryūkaku tower and fights Inukai Genpachi there; the two grapple and fall into the Tone River. The tower is the author's version of Koga Castle. Most of the real castle was lost under the riverbank and embankments of the Watarase river works, but the Koga Historical Museum stands on the site of an outer bailey.

Location precision: The Hōryūkaku is an invented tower; the pin marks the site of the real Koga Castle.

Visitor guidance: Koga Historical Museum stands on the site of a former outer bailey of the castle.

The river carries Shino and Genpachi downstream to Gyōtoku in Shimōsa. There they are rescued by the innkeeper Konaya Bungobei and his son Inuta Kobungo, a third dog warrior. Gyōtoku was a salt-making area, with production going back to the Sengoku period, and in the novel's final war the dog warriors defend the Gyōtoku approach. The inn is fictional and its site unknown, so the pin marks Gyōtoku Station.

Location precision: The novel does not fix the inn on a map; the pin marks the Gyōtoku district in Ichikawa.