A daimyo of the Sengoku era who rose from the lowly position of foot soldier to serve as a commander of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's fleet in the invasions of Korea. He was one of Toyotomi's main generals in the Battle of Sekigahara (1600), but switched his allegiance to Tokugawa Ieyasu, who gave him the 200,000-koku fiefdom of Iyo-Imabari and later made him lord of the 320,000-koku domain of Tsu, with land in both Iga and Ise.

Toudou Takatora was a famous designer of castles, involved in in construction of as many as twenty castles, including: Edo Castle, Wakayama Castle, Uwajima Castle, Imabari Castle, Iga Ueno Castle and Sasayama Castle.