Numata Castle, Mountain castle in Gunma Prefecture, Japan

Numata Castle occupies a raised site in Gunma Prefecture and displays stone walls with reconstructed wooden elements that once formed a defensive stronghold above surrounding valleys. The compound spreads across multiple terraces from which the mountain landscape and the town below come into view.

Numata Akiyasu built the castle in 1532 as the stronghold of the Numata clan. Sanada Masayuki took it in 1580, and after 1590 it passed to Sanada Nobuyuki, who rebuilt it in 1597 with stone walls and a five-story donjon. In 1681 the Tokugawa shogunate dispossessed Sanada Nobutoshi, and the castle was demolished in 1682.

The castle was also called Kurauchi-jō. In the park stands the Ubukata House, an Edo-period pharmacy from the castle town, now an Important Cultural Property serving as a local history museum with a scale model of the castle under the Sanada. A reconstructed bell tower stands on the honmaru site, but its bell is a copy; Sanada Nobuyoshi's 1634 "castle bell" survives as a prefectural Important Cultural Property and is displayed at the Numata Historical Museum in Terasu Numata.

Access runs through Numata Park at 594 Nishikurauchi-machi, where paths lead up to the restored sections. Visitors can walk daily among foundations and reconstructed buildings, though sturdy footwear helps on uneven stone pathways.

The original bell from 1634 was commissioned by Sanada Nobuyoshi and now ranks among the Important Cultural Properties of the prefecture. It no longer hangs in the tower but is preserved separately under protection.