The founding year of Amagasaki Castle is traditionally considered to be 1617, when Toda Ujikané built his castle here, making it the administrative center of the Amagasaki Domain. However, as early as the Sengoku period, a fortress built by the Hosokawa clan already stood on this site. After the fall of Itami Castle in 1579, Araki Murashige—formerly a vassal of Oda Nobunaga who had rebelled against him—fled to this earlier castle.
Because Amagasaki Castle was constructed during the peaceful Edo period, it was never subjected to military attacks. After Toda Ujikané, ownership of the castle passed to the Aoyama clan in 1635, and from 1711 until the end of the Edo period it was held by the Sakurai branch of the Matsudaira clan.
Throughout its history, Amagasaki suffered repeatedly from fires. In 1846, the palace of the main bailey, the Hommaru Goten, was completely destroyed by fire, but it was later rebuilt.
In 1873, in accordance with an edict issued by the new Meiji government, the castle was dismantled. All of its buildings were put up for auction, with merchants from Osaka becoming the main buyers. The structures were taken apart and transported elsewhere, but their subsequent fate is now unknown. Stones from the castle walls were reused in the construction of a breakwater in Osaka Bay.
Part of the daimyō’s residence survived and was used as the main hall of Shinshō-in Temple, but it was destroyed during the air raids of 1945.
Amagasaki Castle occupied a strategically advantageous position between the Omotsugawa and Shōgegawa rivers, which flowed into Osaka Bay. After construction was completed, ships from the bay could enter the castle directly via the rivers and moats.
Amagasaki consisted of several baileys separated by wide water-filled moats known as mizubori and stone walls called ishigaki. The castle had its own four-story tenshu donjon located at a corner of the main bailey, several two-story yagura turrets, and three additional three-story towers positioned at the corners of the main hommaru bailey. The hommaru itself was square in shape, with sides measuring approximately 115 meters. Three bridges led into the main bailey, each controlled by masugata barbicans.
Today, the site of the former main hommaru bailey is occupied by the buildings of Meijō Municipal Elementary School. Most of the other baileys have been lost to urban development. Only a small northern section of the former castle grounds is now preserved as part of Amagasaki Castle Ruins Park. The city board of education has conducted archaeological excavations at the castle ruins more than twenty times, and the artifacts that were discovered are displayed in the city’s historical museum.
In 2015, a local entrepreneur established a foundation with the goal of reconstructing the castle’s donjon. Part of the necessary funding was raised through donations from local residents. Construction work began in 2016 and was completed in 2019. In addition to the donjon, sections of stone ishigaki walls and earthen dobei walls were also built.
Although the reconstructed donjon generally resembles the main tower depicted in surviving plans, it is considered a so-called “fake” reconstruction, as it was not built on the original site of the historical donjon—it stands instead in the area of the former Nishi-sannomaru bailey—differs in several details from the original, and is made of reinforced concrete. This last point in particular has drawn criticism in light of the growing movement in Japan to replace postwar reinforced-concrete “reconstructions” of donjons with more authentic wooden structures.
The interior of the donjon houses informational displays on the history of the castle and the region, as well as various installations and interactive exhibition areas.
See also
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Kaminoyama Castle
Kamino-yama Castle stood at the center of an important logistics hub, in the middle of the Yonezawa Plain, which served as the gateway to the western part of the Tohoku region. Roads connecting the Aizu, Fukushima, and Yamagata areas intersected here.
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Imabari Castle
Tōdō Takatora (1556–1630) served at different times as a vassal of several famous clans—Azai, Oda, Toyotomi, and Tokugawa. He took part in the Battle of Anegawa (1570), the Battle of Shizugatake (1583), the invasions of Kyushu and Korea, the Sekigahara campaign (1600), and the Siege of Osaka (1614–1615).
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Iwakuni Castle
Kikkawa Hiroie (1561–1625) was the grandson of the famous daimyo Mori Motonari and a vassal of the Mori clan. Under Mori Terumoto, he fought in both Korean campaigns and took part in the defense of Ulsan Castle. During the Battle of Sekigahara, Hiroie stood with his 3,000-man force on the side of the Western Coalition; however, even before the battle began, he sent Tokugawa Ieyasu a secret message stating that he did not intend to fight Tokugawa’s troops. As a result of his inaction, 15,000 soldiers under Mori Hidemoto were also unable to enter the battle, since Hiroie blocked their path.
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Gujo Hachiman Castle
Gujo Hachiman Castle is located on 350-meter Mount Hachiman, near the confluence of the Yoshidagawa and Kodaragava rivers, and not far from the Nagaragawa River. During the Sengoku period, this area was of great strategic importance: it stood at a key crossroads of routes connecting Mino Province in the south with the Sea of Japan in the north, and Hida Province in the east with Echizen Province in the west.
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Hiroshima Castle
Mōri Terumoto (1553–1625) was the grandson and rightful heir of the renowned Mōri Motonari. When Terumoto became the head of the Mōri clan in 1571, he inherited vast territories covering a large part of the San’in and San’yō regions in western Honshū. In addition, the Mōri clan possessed the largest and most technologically advanced naval fleet of its time.
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Fukuyama Castle
After the defeat of Toyotomi Hideyori’s supporters in the Osaka Campaigns of 1614–1615, many clans in Japan still remained not fully loyal to the Tokugawa shogunate, especially in the western Chūgoku region. Mizuno Katsunari (1564–1651), a cousin of Tokugawa Ieyasu, became the first of the Tokugawa house’s close retainers, the so-called fudai daimyō, to be relocated to this strategically important area.
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Tiba Castle
The founder of the Chiba clan is considered to be Chiba Tsunesige (1083–1180), who in 1126 moved his residence to the Inohana area and built a strongly fortified stronghold there. Although Tsunesige himself came from the Taira clan, the Chiba clan later supported Minamoto no Yoritomo, the future founder of the first shogunate.
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Sunomata Castle
Oda Nobunaga, as part of his “final solution” to the conflict with the Saitō clan, conceived the construction of a fort in the Sunomata area, which was intended to serve as a forward base for an attack on Inabayama Castle (later renamed Gifu). Sunomata was a swampy area located between Ogaki Castle, a stronghold of the Oda clan, and Inabayama, the main fortress of the Saitō clan. Earlier attempts to build fortifications in this area, carried out by Oda generals Sakuma Nobumori and Shibata Katsuie, had all ended in failure. After that, the task was entrusted to the young vassal Kinoshita Tokichirō, who later became known as Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
