At the end of the Edo period, Tanabe Castle was home to a branch of the Makino, daimyō of Tango-Tanabe Domain.

He then constructed a secondary fortification on the site of the former Isshiki complex at Tanabe, due to its more convenient location on the route to Kyoto.

[1] During the Battle of Sekigahara, Tadaoki was en route to the Kantō region with his troops in support of Tokugawa Ieyasu while Fujitaka was attacked by forces of the Western Army local to Ishida Mitsunari.

The Kyōgoku were transferred to Toyooka Domain in Tajima Province in 1668 and the castle was given to a cadet branch of the Makino clan, who remained until the Meiji Restoration in 1868.

The castle site is a four-minute walk from Nishi-Maizuru Station on the JR West Maizuru Line.