A city located in Nagasaki Prefecture.

Mount Ishigaki is a mountain located in Odawara City, Kanagawa Prefecture 241.6 meters (792 feet) in height. It is located 2.8 kilometers (1.7 miles) to the south-west of Odawara Castle and is famous for being the place where Toyotomi Hideyoshi built his stronghold, the One-Night Castle, in 1590 during the Siege of Odawara. It was designated a historical landmark in 1959.

The mountain was originally known as Mt. Kasagake, but was renamed Ishigaki, or "stone wall" for the castle ramparts after the siege. Hideyoshi's troops started the castle on April 5th and completed it on June 26th, and it was the first all-stone castle built in the Kantou. The summit of Mt. Ishigaki offered an unbroken view of the entire Odawara Castle area.

A fortified Buddhist temple established in 1496 which was home to warrior monks, priests, peasants, and local nobles (Ikkou-ikki) who opposed samurai rule. Oda Nobunaga, who feared the power and influence of the monks, set siege to the fortress in 1570 while Kennyo was its chief abbot. The siege lasted for 10 years, and the temple finally fell in 1580.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi began construction of Osaka Castle on the same site three years later.

A town in Koufu City, Yamanashi Prefecture which contains Takeda Shingen's tomb, known as the Maenduka.

Also known as: Misty Castle (霧ヶ城)

Iwamura Castle was built in 1221 by Tooyama Kagetomo, first daimyo of the Tooyama Clan and firstborn son of Katou Kagekado, senior vassal to Minamoto no Yoritomo of the Kamakura Shogunate. Located in south-eastern Mino Province (modern-day Iwamura Town, Ena District, Gifu Prefecture), it was considered one of Japan's three most famous mountaintop castles until it was ordered to be demolished during the Meiji Period.

Tooyama Kagetou, who became a retainer of Oda Nobunaga, was the last of the clan to hold the castle. Tooyama died of illness on Sept. 21, 1572 without an heir. Soon after, Takeda Shingen laid siege to the castle as part of his program of expansion. Tooyama's widow Lady Otsuya, aunt of Oda Nobunaga, negotiated for surrender of the castle.

Shingen entrusted it to Akiyama Nobutomo, one of his Twenty-four Generals. Lady Otsuya married Akiyama Nobutomo and sent her adopted son Gobomaru (Oda Katsunaga), fifth son of Oda Nobunaga, to Takeda as hostage.

In 1575, after Nobunaga defeated Takeda Katsuyori in the Battle of Nagashino, he laid siege to Iwamura Castle. Akiyama Nobutomo and Lady Otsuya defended the castle for six months, only emerging on Nobunaga's plea for peace and promise of safety. Nobunaga reneged on his word and had both of them executed as traitors by hanging upside-down.

A mountain castle located in Chikuzen Province known as the location for the fierce Siege of Iwaya Castle between Shimazu forces lead by Shimazu Tadatake and Ootomo forces led by Takahashi Jouun.

Izu Peninsula, located to the west of Tokyo, was formerly part of Izu Province and is today a part of Shizuoka Prefecture. It is known for its hot springs and is a part of Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park.

Also known as: Senshuu (泉州)

A province of ancient Japan which is now a part of south-western Osaka Prefecture.

A mountain located on the border between Hachiouji City, Tokyo and Sagamihara City, Kanagawa Prefecture. It was chosen as one of the 50 scenic locations of Kanagawa Prefecture.

The name of the mountain was once written with the characters 陣場 (pronounced the same), which literally means "place of encampment", and it was thus named because it was the place where the Takeda army camped during its attack on the Houjou Takiyama Castle. The name was changed to its present form with "place" replaced by "horse" in the 1950s when the Keio Corporation built a white horse at the summit to promote tourism.

A small shrine to Jinja-ou, the god who helped Shoudou cross the Daiya River by casting down a pair of snakes to formed a bridge.

The current shrine was rebuilt in 1978.

Lit: "castle-north"; the name of the high school at which Narita Yuzuru and Ougi Takaya are 2nd-year students, located in Matsumoto City. Likely fictional. However, the manga implies that the real-life equivalent is Fukashi High (深志高) , which is indeed "north of the (Matsumoto) Castle".

School begins in May. Some of the classes Takaya takes are: Classical Literature, Modern Japanese, English, Math, Physics, P.E. and an art elective with choices of Fine Arts, Music, and Calligraphy. Takaya and Yuzuru both take Fine Arts. Their day is divided into Periods, with one class per Period. It sounds like classes rotate into different Periods as the week progresses; for example, in Volume 2 chapter 4, Chiaki tells Takaya that the Math teacher assigned him a problem for Second Period today, because he wasn't there for First Period yesterday.

A park established in October, 1875 (8th year of Meiji) by edict of the Department of State, among the first in the Prefecture of Nagano. Sakura and Taiwanese sweet gum are among the flowering trees in the park. Visitors have a panoramic view of Matsumoto City, the Azumi Basin, and the Northern Alps from the park's viewing platform.

Also known as: Mariko-jou (鞠子城)

Kabasawa Castle is a mountain castle located in Echigo (now Niigata Prefecture) said to be the place where Uesugi Kagekatsu was born. Its inner citadel was built at the mountain summit at an elevation of 300 meters (~984 feet).

During the 14th century, the castle was the stronghold of a vassal of Nitta Yoshisada. Nagao Kagetora (Uesugi Kenshin) became master of the castle during the Sengoku Period and commanded his brother-in-law Nagao Masakage to make alterations to it.

Since Kabasawa Castle lay on the three-province highway that was the shortest distance between Echigo and the Kantou, it was used as a communications base during Kenshin's Kantou expeditions. Masakage and his wife Sentouin seemed to have lived in the castle as well, and their son (later Uesugi Kagekatsu) was born there in the fifth year of their marriage.

After Kenshin's death, Houjou Ujiteru and Houjou Ujikuni dispatched by Houjou Ujimasa to aid their brother Uesugi Kagetora in the Otate no Ran crossed Mikuni Pass and captured Kabasawa Castle. The Houjou army made Kabasawa their base from which to attack Sakato Castle, but withdrew with the advent of winter.

Kagekatsu took the castle upon his victory in the Otate no Ran. He later abandoned the castle upon receiving the 120,0000-koku territory of the Aizu from Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

A province of ancient Japan that is today a part of southern Ishikawa Prefecture which once bordered on the provinces of Echizen, Ecchuu, Hida, and Noto. The priest Rennyo of Hongan Temple arrived in the 15th century to preach the tenets of True Pure Land Buddhism, which spread rapidly among the samurai and peasants of the region. They banded together into the Ikkou Sect to create a "Peasant's Kingdom", which lasted for a hundred years until Sakuma Morimasa overthrew it by order of Oda Nobunaga in 1580.

Three years later, Maeda Toshiie invaded the province and took it for Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The Maeda Clan ruled it thereafter, focusing on culture and art instead of military and warfare, and developed the province into the richest domain outside of Tokugawa Shogunate. Kaga was famous for its gold-leaf, inlaid work, and calligraphy, promoted by its Maeda lords.

The capital city of Kagoshima Prefecture, it is the city in which Francis Xavier, the first Christian to arrive in Japan, landed in 1549.

Also known as: Matsushiro-jou (松代城)

The castle protected by Kousaka Masanoubu, and where Takeda made his stronghold during the battle of Kawanakajima. It is now called Matsushiro-jou (松代城).

Lit.: Holy Mountain; Kamiyama is the highest peak of Mt. Hakone at 1,438 meters (~4717.8 feet) and is located to the east of Lake Ashi. It has been worshiped as a sacred mountain since ancient times.

It takes around an hour and thirty minutes to hike to Kamiyama from the top of Komagatake.

A prefecture located in the southern Kantou Region of Honshuu, Japan which was composed of the ancient provinces of Sagami and Musashi.

Kanman Abyss, located along the Daiya River, was known from ancient times as a spot sacred to the mountain ascetics and a place where they went to practice and train.

Also known as: Kinki-chihou (近畿地方)

The Kansai region encompasses the prefectures of Mie, Nara, Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyougo and Shiga, and sometimes Fukui, Tokushima and Tottori in the southern-central region of Honshuu.

Lit.:"East of the Gate", the easternmost of five regions located on Honshuu Island which comprises of the seven prefectures of Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba, and Kanagawa. This is the most highly developed and industrialized region of Japan and was the heart of feudal power during the Edo Period.

During the Edo Period, the area was also called the "Kanhasshuu" (関八州), or Eight Kantou Provinces: Musashi, Sagami, Kazusa, Shimousa, Awa, Kouzuke, Shimotsuke, and Hitachi.

Lit.: Light Well Marsh; a town in Nagano Prefecture located at the foot of Mount Asama which is a popular mountain resort for Tokyo residents, offering outdoor activies and a historic shopping street.

Also known as: Hachigamine-jou

Kasugayama Castle was Uesugi Kenshin's primary fortress, located in present-day Niigata Prefecture. It was built by the Nagao clan, and Kenshin became its lord in 1548 (some say Kenshin built the castle). Uesugi Kagekatsu won control of the castle in the Otate no Ran after his adopted father's death.

A city located in Saitama Prefecture which was the seat of the former Kawagoe-han.