Amagasaki Castle

Amagasaki, Japan, Japan

---

Amagasaki Castle was a flatland Japanese castle in the city of Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, that served as the administrative center of the Amagasaki Domain under the Tokugawa shogunate during the Edo period.

Although a smaller fortress had existed on the site since the Sengoku period under the Hosokawa clan, the major Edo-period castle was built in 1617 by Toda Ujikane, with Tokugawa Shogunate support, and featured three enclosures (baileys), three water moats, and a four-story main keep (tenshu) in the central Honmaru area.

The castle was fully dismantled in 1873 after the Meiji Restoration’s abolition-of-castles policy, and most of its stone and structures were reused in nearby breakwaters and urban development, leaving the original Honmaru site occupied today by a municipal elementary school and the surrounding enclosures largely absorbed into city facilities and residential areas.

In 2018–2019, thanks to funding from a local entrepreneur and public donations, a new three-story, tenshu-style tower was reconstructed in Amagasaki Castle Ruins Park, where the original Nishi San-no-maru enclosure had stood, about 300 meters northwest of the true Honmaru keep location, and the park itself includes children’s play equipment, seasonal plum blossoms, and opportunities for visitors to dress up as lords, princesses, or ninjas.