Eboshigata Castle Ruins
・Christians of Kawachi-Eboshigata

Eboshigata Castle Ruins

They are in a place of strategic importance because it is in the crossing of the roads communicating to the three countries: Kii, Yamato and Izumi. In times of great changes, it became a battlefield. The Eboshigata Castle Ruins are a Nationally Designated Historical Site because there are historical records and archeological remains showing that in “The Tale of the Heike” it appears as “Nagano Castle”, in the Nanboku-cho period it was one of the Kusunoki 7 castle, and in the period starting with the Onin War to the Sengoku period, it is recorded as an “earth-based castle”.

Christians of Kawachi-Eboshigata

At the time Oda Nobunaga started to head to the Kinai (imperial palace nearby) area, until he period of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, there were near 7 thousand Christians in the Kawachi area. In the Eboshigata Castle, there were 300 to 500 Christians, including generals. It was one of the footholds in the Kawachi area. There was also a church built in that place. The general Ijichi Bundayu, who was called “The big person of Eboshi”, donated his residence in Sakai to the Society of Jesus, which is said to be the start of the church in Sakai city. The Eboshigata Castle appears in the records of the annual reports of the Society of Jesus. Near the Dainichi-tera temple there is a placed known as “Yasobu”, that tells the legend of the Christians.