The original Kishiwada Castle is said to have been built in the 4th year of the Genko Period (1334) to the east of the current castle, in Noda-cho, by Takaie Nigita who was related to Masashige Kusunoki. The shape of the Honmaru (castle keep) and the Ninomaru (the second court) together creates a shape similar to a chikiri, the warp beam of a weaving machine; thus, it is also called Chikiri Castle. In the 13th year of the Tensho Period (1585), Hidemasa Koide, uncle of Hideyoshi, became the owner due to the siege of the Negoroji Temple of Kishu by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and he conducted a major reconstruction to turn the castle keep into a five-story donjon. From this point on, the Kishiwada Castle was owned for three generations by the Koide family, then by Yasushige and Yasuteru Matsudaira (Matsui) from the 5th year of the Genna Period (1619), then by the Okabe family from the 17th year of the Kannei Period (1640). Nobukatsu Okabe made further major reformations to create a modern castle, and his family owned it for 13 generations up to the Meiji Reformation. The donjon was struck by lightning and burned down in the 10th year of the Bunsei Period (1827), and the castle owner himself destroyed the castle facilities such as the turret and gates during the Reformation, so the moat and the stone walls are all that remain of the construction during and before the modern ages. The current donjon is a simulated three-layered, three-story building built in the 29th year of the Showa Period (1954), with exhibition rooms for artifacts, and a watchtower, etc. Also in featured in the Honmaru is a garden called "Hachijin-no-niwa."