The history of Japan’s castle goes back about 1350 years. Osaka castle started its history around 500 years ago. At first it was not a castle, but a house where monks lived. Later it had a big power and became a temple called Ishiyama honganji. However it was broke down by Oda Nobunaga, a shogun who sought to take a control of the country.
After Oda Nobunaga’s death, another guy named Hashiba Hideyoshi who later became Toyotomi Hideyoshi got a control of the government next. He decided to control the country from the place.
He ordered to build a castle at the place where Ishiyama honganji used to be. Apparently the castle at that time was four times or five times as big as the castle today. The castle was grand and perfect. It came from Hideyoshi’s thought, that was castle’s looks were really important in order to show their power. Hideyoshi considered himself as Oda Nobunaga’s successor so thinking of Aduchi castle by Oda Nobunaga as a model, he built a much more grand castle.
Since Hideyoshi liked expensive things, buildings in the castle were rich and expensive too. They say he showed visitors around the castle by himself and showed off his power and richness to them. But Hideyoshi never stopped here. Until his death, he developed it and built a town around Osaka castle that is a foundation of the place today.
When Hideyoshi army and Tokugawa army fought, Osaka castle did not let every single enemy into it. That means, the castle was too difficult to attack.
After Hideyoshi lost to Tokugawa Shogunate, Hideyoshi family ended and Tokugawa Shogunate burnt Osaka castle down. Tokugawa Shogunate became a top of the country and Edo period started.
Five years after that, Tokugawa Shogunate started working on building new Osaka castle. The shogun back then was Tokugawa Hidetada, who was the second shogun. It took about 10 years to rebuild the entire castle. It became a different from the one when Hideyoshi built. In spite of the bad luck that the castle was struck by thunder, still it had a power to control western part of Japan by Tokugawa Shogunate. Even though Osaka castle was under the control of Tokugawa Shogunate, people did not like it and still loved Hideyoshi. So they kept saying that the castle belongs to Hideyoshi. Furthermore, any shogun had not lived in it at all until the era ended. These two factors made people think that Osaka castle was for Hideyoshi despite the fact it was the new one.
During the period where Japan was changing into modernized, lots of buildings of the castle were broke down. After Tokugawa Shogunate, Osaka castle was used for army during Meiji period. After years of World War ended, with a lot of help by people Osaka castle was repaired to the one that is Osaka castle today and became a Japan’s national treasure. Area around Osaka castle was damaged in World War Ⅱ and later it became a historical park. Osaka castle has seen many things since it was built. It connects past, present and future through itself. I hope you come visit here and feel everything it has had.
Huge stone is used for the wall 
The entrance for the castle