城下町以前、この地域は旧山陽道に沿って中庄村（明石川左岸）と大明石村があるだけでした。
お城は西の明石川と東の両馬川の中心の小山（赤松山）に築かれ、その麓を通っていた山陽道を南に迂回させて、外堀を設けました。
東西の川近くには足軽・組屋敷やお寺を配し、城下町を守り、明石川には警護のため江戸時代後半まで橋は架けられませんでした。
城下西端には姫路口門を構え十王堂が、東端には京口門に一向光明寺（朝顔光明寺）が配されました。外堀より内は侍町、その南は町屋で構成され、船溜りから西に船手（水主）が集められました。
城下町形成初期の町屋は、東から鍛治屋町、細工町、東魚町、東本町、西本町、西魚町、信濃町、東樽屋町、西樽屋町、明石町でした。
東西に職人町、中央に商人町という配置で、特に東魚町は鮮魚と練り物、西魚町は干物、海産物と専門別にお店が集められていました。
現在は違う町名（本町）になり、地名を手掛かりに往時を辿るのが難しくなってきました。
The city planning of old Akashi
Before Akashi became the castle town, there were only two villages. Nakanosho Mura village in the same were along the old Sanyodo route face to face. Akashi Castle was constructed on the hill, Mt Akamatsu, which was in the middle of the Akashi River in the west and the Ryoma River in the east. The old Sanyodo route went along the foot of the hill and was moved south. And then, the outer moat was built. They placed houses of samurai of the lowest rank and officers also temples near the both rivers as the buffer zone against the enemy. They didn’t build any bridges to prevent the easy invasion till the end of the Edo period. They installed Himeji-guchi gate at the west end of the town and built Juodo temple by it. They built Kyo-guchi gate at the east end of the town and arranged Ikko sect Komyo-ji or Asagao-Komyo-ji temple by the gate. There was Samurai-machi town between outer moat and inner moat. Tradesmen and artisans lived in the south of the outer moat and sailors were gathered in the west from the port. The domiciles where tradesmen and artisans lived in the early Edo period depended on their careers and were named from east to west, such as Kajiya-machi for smiths, Saiku-machi for craftmen, Higashi-uo-machi for fish shops, Higashihon-machi, Nishihon-machi, Nishi-uo-machi, Shinano-machi, Higashi-taruya-machi for the barrel, Nishi-taruya-machi, Akashi-machi. They set tradesmen zone on the middle and artisans zone on the east and west of the former. They could buy fresh fish and processed fish paste in Higashi-uo-machi only, and dried fish and marine products in Nishi-uo-machi only. Now Hon-machi includes Higashi-uo-machi and Nishi-uo-machi, so both of names disappeared. Though modern-day towns use the old names, their substances are quite different.
職人町として残る鍛冶屋町
信濃町は中町から本町2丁目になった
城下の西には寺院が集められた
明石へリテージマップ『城下』2017
