Built in 1585 by Toyotomi Hidenaga under orders from older brother Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Wakayama Castle was established as a base for controlling the Kii Peninsula. Taken over by Tokugawa Yorinobu (10th son of Tokugawa Ieyasu) in 1619, it then became one the principal fortresses of the Tokugawa family, remaining so until the Meiji Restoration. Destroyed by bombing in 1945, it was rebuilt in ferro-concrete in 1958.