Amagasaki Castle

Amagasaki Castle is a reconstructed Japanese fortress in Amagasaki city, Hyōgo Prefecture, near where two rivers flow into Osaka Bay. The four-story main tower has wooden balconies, curved roofs with fired tiles, and whitewashed outer walls.

Toda Ujikane ordered the original fortress built from 1617 as the seat of the Amagasaki domain under Tokugawa rule. The current building dates from 2019 and stands about 300 meters (980 feet) from the original site.

The name derives from the town itself, whose characters originally meant ‚nun' and ‚small fishing net', reflecting the region's old ties to fishing. Visitors today see a replica tower building with the curved roofs and stone bases typical of lowland fortifications in Japan.

Visitors reach the replica via public walkways in a mixed residential and commercial neighborhood that has grown around the new site. The building is accessible from the outside at any time, while interior visits depend on current opening hours.

The area around the original site was the location where 670 political hostages were executed in 1579 during the Siege of Itami, when Araki Murashige refused to surrender to Oda Nobunaga. These events took place decades before the actual fortress was built and shaped how the location was remembered later.