Marugame Castle was first built in 1587 but abandoned in 1615. With the permission of the Tokugawa Shogunate, Yamazaki Ieharu, master of Western Kagawa Prefecture, rebuilt Marugame from 1641, and work continued under the following masters, the Kyogoku clan, before being completed around 1670. The high stone walls, built in three tiers by the Yamazaki and Kyogoku clans, are currently the most notable features of this castle. The three-story tenshu dating from around 1660 is the smallest of the existing tenshu, standing only about 15m in height. However, when viewed from the Ote-mon Gate, the tenshu appears to rise above the multi-level stone walls, making it look larger and more imposing than it really is. The Masugata gate system features an impressive kagami-ishi, a huge stone symbolic of the castle lord’s strength and authority. Besides the stone walls and the tenshu, the Ote Ichi-no-mon and Ote Ni-no-mon Gates exist.