Kume

Kume lies in central Hōki, around the town of Kurayoshi and Mount Utsubuki. A castle occupied the mountain, with its fortifications extending along the ridges above the town. After the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, the Nakamura family governed Hōki and stationed a keeper at Utsubuki Castle, making it a local political center. The shogunate ordered the castle dismantled in 1615, but the settlement at its foot endured.