Ruins of Amagasaki Castle

The Amagasaki Castle Ruins are the remains of a flatland castle in Amagasaki City, Hyogo Prefecture. Amagasaki Castle was built in the early Edo period by Toda Ujitetsu, a fudai daimyo of the Tokugawa shogunate, as the western defensive stronghold of Osaka Castle. It was a majestic castle with a four-story main keep and triple moats, and its overall scale is said to have been vast—equivalent to about 3.5 times the area of Hanshin Koshien Stadium. After the castle was abolished in the Meiji era, the extensive castle grounds were repurposed for government offices and schools, and part of the site became Amagasaki Castle Ruins Park. Access is about a 5-minute walk from Hanshin Railway Amagasaki Station. The reconstructed castle tower seen today was built with approximately 1.2 billion yen of private funds by Akira (Satoshi) Ambo, the founder of the former consumer-electronics retailer Midori Denka, who wished to “give back to the place where I started,” and it was donated to Amagasaki City in 2018. Donations from citizens gathered through programs such as “One-Bite Castle Lord” also totaled about 200 million yen. Loved by local figures and many residents, the beautiful white-walled keep has been restored. The 2nd floor and above are paid areas, featuring souvenir photo spots where you can dress up as a princess or ninja, and an observation zone with views over Amagasaki. The 1st floor includes a shop stocked with Amagasaki specialties, making it a great stop for sightseeing in Amagasaki.