Saitama

Saitama lies in the lowlands of northern Musashi, where rivers spread across the Kantō plain. The Narita family built Oshi Castle here in the fifteenth century and held it for generations. In 1590 Ishida Mitsunari besieged the castle during Toyotomi Hideyoshi's campaign against the Hōjō. He raised a long embankment and diverted water from the Tone and Arakawa rivers in an attempt to flood the defenders, leaving the district with a memorable battlefield landscape.