Born in 1548 in Owari Province, Mizoguchi Hidekazu served Oda Nobunaga and then Toyotomi Hideyoshi, gaining extensive castle-building experience through appointments at Kajita, Kaifu, and Kanie castles among others. In 1598, following Uesugi Kagekatsu's transfer to Aizu, he was granted 60,000 koku at Shibata in Echigo's Kanbara district (present-day Shibata City, Niigata). He first settled at a residence in Igomino before beginning the layout and construction of Shibata Castle, drawing on the expertise he had gained under Nobunaga and Hideyoshi. At the Battle of Sekigahara he sided with the Eastern army, and his efforts suppressing the Uesugi remnant uprising won him confirmation of his domain from Tokugawa Ieyasu, making him the first lord of Shibata domain. Shibata Castle remained unfinished in his lifetime and was only completed under his grandson, the third lord Nobunao. Hidekazu died in 1610 at age 63. The Mizoguchi clan, though an outside (tozama) daimyo house, went on to govern Shibata without transfer all the way to the end of the Edo period.

A pragmatist skilled in the castle-building techniques and administrative ability he honed under Nobunaga and Hideyoshi, who understood his position as an outside daimyo and adeptly preserved his domain under the Tokugawa regime.

The foundations Hidekazu laid at Shibata Castle gave rise to a fortress known nationwide for its unique three-story turret crowned with three shachihoko roof ornaments; its front gate and former corner turret are designated Important Cultural Properties. The Mizoguchi clan governed Shibata for twelve generations, and the old castle town still retains traces of its samurai residences and temple district.