Niwa

Niwa lies in northern Owari along the Kiso River, where Inuyama Castle stands above the water. Tradition dates the castle to 1537, when Oda Nobuyasu moved his residence to the hill beside the river. During the fighting of 1584, forces supporting Toyotomi Hideyoshi crossed the Kiso and seized Inuyama as a base. In 1617 Naruse Masanari, a senior retainer of the Owari Tokugawa, received the castle and established a long family tenure.