Site of Kamabuta Castle
Kamabuta Castle was a mountain fortress constructed on a 154-meter hilltop in 1569 by Chijiwa Yamato no Kami Naokazu, a Sengoku-period (1467–1538) military commander affiliated with the Arima domain. In 1577, an army from a hostile domain attacked the castle. Chijiwa resisted bravely, but when reinforcements from Arima failed to arrive, he and his retainers killed themselves.
The structure that currently stands on the site dates from 1987. Although some of the stones in the building’s base and in the staircase leading up to the building are original, the architecture bears no relation to the original castle.
Chijiwa Yamato no Kami Naokazu was the father of Chijiwa Seizaemon Norikazu, better known as Chijiwa Miguel, one of the four members of the Tensho Embassy who traveled to Europe in 1582 to meet the pope. Miguel was long thought to have abandoned his faith toward the end of his life. The recent discovery of what appear to be rosary beads in his purported grave suggests, however, that this assumption may be mistaken.