Castle towns and local food | Japan Castle Atlas

Hakodate, Hokkaido

Goryōkaku

五稜郭

From above it is a giant star ringed by a moat: a fort the shogunate built on the European model, designed for the age of cannon.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 2CastleFlatland

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The keep of Matsumae Castle in summer (2024). It is a 1960 reinforced-concrete replacement for the wooden keep lost in 1949 and now houses the Matsumae Castle Museum.

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Matsumae, Hokkaido

Matsumae Castle

松前城

Built on the shogunate's orders to face down foreign ships, this was the last and northernmost castle built in the traditional Japanese style, with seven gun batteries lined up toward the sea.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 3CastleHilltop

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Hachinohe, Aomori

Ne Castle

根城

A castle of earth and timber with no keep or stone walls, whose late-16th-century main enclosure has been rebuilt, building by building, from the post holes found in excavation.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 5CastleFlatland

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Morioka, Iwate

Morioka Castle

盛岡城

Almost no buildings survive, yet the stone walls alone tell 90 years of castle building, from rough natural stones laid around 1600 to neatly squared blocks dated 1686, all within one castle.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 6CastleHilltop

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Tagajō, Miyagi

Taga Castle

多賀城

In a small hall beside the south gate stands a stone that still announces, in its own carved words, that this "castle" was founded in 724.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 7Ancient frontier fort (jōsaku)Hilltop

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Miyagi

Sendai Castle

仙台城

Inside the 17-meter stone wall of the main enclosure, archaeologists found two older walls, each built and then buried after earthquakes brought it down.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 8CastleMountain

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Yamagata, Yamagata

Yamagata Castle

山形城

When a film needed the gate of Edo Castle, it was Yamagata Castle's Ninomaru East Otemon Gate that played the part.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 10CastleFlatland

Raita Futo from Tokyo, JapanCC BY 2.0Wikimedia Commons

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Chiyoda, Tokyo

Edo Castle

江戸城

After its 58-meter keep burned in 1657, it was never rebuilt; only the huge stone base remains, in a garden of the Imperial Palace.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 14CastleFlatland

Otto DomesCC BY-SA 4.0Wikimedia Commons

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Ashikaga, Tochigi

Ashikaga Clan Residence (Banna-ji)

足利氏館

The ancestral home of the Ashikaga shoguns became a temple, and its moat and earthen banks have survived around the temple grounds for 800 years.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 17CastleFlatland

shiro524CC BY-SA 3.0Wikimedia Commons

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Sakura, Chiba

Sakura Castle

佐倉城

A castle of earth and water, with no stone walls, whose lords included nine of the shogun's senior councilors.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 20CastleHilltop

Nankou OronainCC BY-SA 3.0Wikimedia Commons

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Odawara, Kanagawa

Odawara Castle

小田原城

To face Toyotomi Hideyoshi, its lords wrapped the whole town, not just the castle, in 9 km of moats and earthen walls.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 21CastleHilltop

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Kawagoe, Saitama

Kawagoe Castle

川越城

There was never a keep, but the grand entrance and great hall of a daimyo's palace still stand from the Edo period.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 23CastleHilltop

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Nagano, Nagano

Matsushiro Castle

松代城

Takeda Shingen built it as his front line in the Kawanakajima wars, and the Sanada family later lived here for 250 years.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 24CastleFlatland

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Ueda, Nagano

Ueda Castle

上田城

This is the Sanada clan's castle that twice drove back Tokugawa armies, yet the turrets standing today were built after the Sanada had gone.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 25CastleFlatland

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Komoro, Nagano

Komoro Castle

小諸城

To reach this castle you walk down from the town, not up: Komoro is a "hole castle."

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 26CastleHilltop

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Matsumoto, Nagano

Matsumoto Castle

松本城

A black keep built for war is joined to a red-railed moon-viewing turret built in a time of peace.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 27CastleFlatland

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Ina, Nagano

Takatō Castle

高遠城

A castle site with no keep and no tall stone walls, filled instead with 1,500 cherry trees of a single variety.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 28CastleHilltop

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The front of Takeda Shrine seen from Takeda-dori, May 2014. The red bridge crosses the residence's moat, with stone walls on either side. The shrine grounds are the site of the Takeda residence.

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Kofu, Yamanashi

Tsutsujigasaki Castle

武田氏館

The residence where Takeda Shingen lived is now the grounds of a shrine where he is worshiped.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 29CastleFlatland

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Kofu, Yamanashi

Maizuru Castle Park

甲府城

Kofu Station itself stands on the site of one of the castle's enclosures.

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Shibata, Niigata

Shibata Castle

新発田城

On the roof of the turret that served as the castle's keep, there are three shachi ornaments instead of the usual pair.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 31CastleFlatland

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Jōetsu, Niigata

Kasugayama Castle

春日山城

Uesugi Kenshin's castle had no stone walls and no keep: it was carved out of an entire mountain.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 32CastleMountain

柴錬アワーCC BY-SA 4.0Wikimedia Commons

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Sakai, Fukui

Maruoka Castle

丸岡城

An original castle keep that collapsed with its stone base in an earthquake, then was put back together using more than 70 percent of its old timbers.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 33CastleHilltop

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Kanazawa, Ishikawa

Kanazawa Castle

金沢城

The roofs of the gates and turrets look silvery white because the tiles are wrapped in sheets of lead.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 36CastleHilltop

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The keep of Okazaki Castle, September 2015. It is a 1959 reinforced-concrete reconstruction whose exterior closely follows the Edo-period keep.

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Okazaki, Aichi

Okazaki Castle

岡崎城

This is the castle where Tokugawa Ieyasu was born, and the well said to have supplied his first bath still survives on the grounds.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 40CastleHilltop

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Shinshiro, Aichi

Nagashino Castle

長篠城

Here 500 defenders held off a 15,000-strong Takeda army. The cliffs where two rivers meet and the main enclosure's great earthen rampart still remain.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 41CastleFlatland

BaristonCC BY-SA 4.0Wikimedia Commons

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Iga, Mie

Iga Ueno Castle

伊賀上野城

This castle has had three keeps: Tsutsui Sadatsugu's three-tiered one, Todo Takatora's five-tiered keep toppled by a storm just before completion, and a wooden keep built in the Showa era by a local politician with his own money.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 42CastleHilltop

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Matsusaka, Mie

Matsusaka Castle

松阪城

Built into the stone base of the keep are the lids of ancient stone coffins from burial mounds.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 43CastleHilltop

inunamiCC BY 2.0Wikimedia Commons

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Shizuoka

Sunpu Castle

駿府城

Under the lawn of a city park, excavators found two keep bases built by Tokugawa Ieyasu in two different eras, one on top of the other.

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江戸村のとくぞうCC BY-SA 4.0Wikimedia Commons

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Kakegawa, Shizuoka

Kakegawa Castle

掛川城

At the foot of a keep rebuilt in wood after 140 years stands an Edo-period palace that never left.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 46CastleHilltop

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Stone walls on a hilltop enclosure, with the surrounding mountains, June 2009. Iwamura Castle sits on a 717 m peak.

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Ena, Gifu

Iwamura Castle

岩村城

On a 717-meter mountain, tiers of stone walls with no buildings left on them climb through the forest.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 47CastleMountain

takami toraoPublic domainWikimedia Commons

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Gifu, Gifu

Gifu Castle

岐阜城

The castle Oda Nobunaga used as his base for unifying Japan was an entire mountain.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 48CastleMountain

AlpsdakeCC BY-SA 4.0Wikimedia Commons

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Hikone, Shiga

Hikone Castle

彦根城

A castle of reuse: its National Treasure keep is said to have come from Otsu Castle, and other buildings and even wall stones from other castles.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 53CastleHilltop

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Ōmihachiman, Shiga

Azuchi Castle

安土城

Nobunaga's seven-story tenshu burned only about three years after it was finished; on the summit, just its foundation stones remain in neat rows.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 54CastleMountain

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Ōmihachiman, Shiga

Kannonji Castle

観音寺城

On the mountain next to Nobunaga's Azuchi Castle stood a huge hilltop castle that was walled in stone before Azuchi was even built.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 55CastleMountain

At by AtCC BY-SA 3.0Wikimedia Commons

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Asago, Hyogo

Takeda Castle

竹田城

On clear late-autumn mornings, only the stone walls on the summit rise above a sea of clouds.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 56CastleMountain

Norio NAKAYAMACC BY-SA 2.0Wikimedia Commons

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Tamba-Sasayama, Hyogo

Sasayama Castle

篠山城

The keep base was built, but a keep never stood on it.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 57CastleHilltop

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Akō, Hyogo

Akō Castle

赤穂城

In the main enclosure, the floor plan of the palace where Oishi Kuranosuke and the Ako retainers of the Chushingura story gathered is laid out on the ground.

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Takatori, Nara

Takatori Castle

高取城

On a 583-meter mountaintop once stood a keep and 27 white turrets, so bright from the town below that a folk song mistook them for snow.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 61CastleMountain

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Tottori, Tottori

Tottori Castle

鳥取城

At the foot of a stone wall bulges a second wall with no corners at all: the Maki-ishigaki, which Tottori City says is the only rounded wall of its kind at any castle in Japan.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 63CastleHilltop

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Matsue, Shimane

Matsue Castle

松江城

Two prayer tablets dated "first month of Keicho 16" (early 1611) turned up, and that discovery helped make this keep a National Treasure.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 64CastleHilltop

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Yasugi, Shimane

Gassantoda Castle

月山富田城

From the lord's mid-slope palace to the summit runs a single steep switchback, Nanamagari, climbed under fire from above: the defenses of the Amago clan's impregnable mountain castle.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 65CastleMountain

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Tsuwano, Shimane

Tsuwano Castle

津和野城

On autumn and winter mornings, the red-tiled castle town sinks under fog while the high stone walls on the mountaintop float above it.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 66CastleMountain

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Tsuyama, Okayama

Tsuyama Castle

津山城

Only one turret stands today, yet the three tiers of stone walls wrapping an entire hill still show how big this castle was.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 67CastleHilltop

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Sōja, Okayama

Ki Castle

鬼ノ城

No keep and no feudal lord: just 2.8 km of earthen wall ringing a mountaintop, built over 1,300 years ago.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 69Ancient mountain fortressMountain

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Fukuyama, Hiroshima

Fukuyama Castle

福山城

Walk around to the north side, and the white keep turns into a wall of black iron.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 71CastleHilltop

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Iwakuni, Yamaguchi

Iwakuni Castle

岩国城

The keep on the hilltop was rebuilt about 50 m east of where the original stood, so that it could be seen from the town around Kintaikyo Bridge.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 74CastleMountain

そらみみCC BY-SA 4.0Wikimedia Commons

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Hagi, Yamaguchi

Hagi Castle

萩城

The keep is gone, but its stone base, flaring out like an open fan, still reflects in the moat in front of Mt. Shizuki, a hill jutting into the sea.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 75CastleHilltop

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Marugame, Kagawa

Marugame Castle

丸亀城

A small original keep, about 15 m tall, is lifted high by tier upon tier of stone walls, walls that collapsed in 2018 and are still being rebuilt today.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 77CastleHilltop

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Matsuyama, Ehime

Yuzuki Castle

湯築城

The park next to Dogo Onsen is the castle from which the Kono clan ruled Iyo for some 250 years. It had no stone walls and no keep, only earthen ramparts and a double ring of moats.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 80CastleHilltop

Yoshio KoharaCC BY 3.0Wikimedia Commons

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Matsuyama, Ehime

Matsuyama Castle

松山城

The keep was finished the year after Perry's Black Ships arrived, and its roof tiles bear the hollyhock crest of the Tokugawa clan.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 81CastleHilltop

SuicasmoCC BY-SA 4.0Wikimedia Commons

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Kōchi, Kochi

Kōchi Castle

高知城

The lord's palace is still attached to the side of the keep, and the whole Edo-period main enclosure survives intact.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 84CastleHilltop

SuicasmoCC BY-SA 4.0Wikimedia Commons

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Fukuoka

Fukuoka Castle

福岡城

The massive keep base still stands, yet whether a keep was ever built on top of it is still an open question.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 85CastleHilltop

HirhoCC BY-SA 4.0Wikimedia Commons

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Ōnojō, Fukuoka

Ōno Castle

大野城

Built in 665 to defend the nation, it rings the ridges of Mount Shioji behind Dazaifu with about 8 km of earthen ramparts and stone walls.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 86Ancient mountain fortressMountain

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Saga, Saga

Saga Castle

佐賀城

The doors of its gate still carry bullet marks from a civil war fought in 1874.

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Hirado, Nagasaki

Hirado Castle

平戸城

Its lord burned his own castle just before it was finished, and it was rebuilt a century later.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 90CastleHilltop

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Tall stone walls stacked on top of the cliffs at Oka Castle, with mountains beyond, 2009. All the buildings were torn down in the Meiji era; only the stone walls remain.

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Taketa, Oita

Oka Castle

岡城

Stone walls on a clifftop, without a single building left, are said to have inspired Taki Rentaro's song "Kojo no Tsuki" (The Moon over the Ruined Castle).

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 93CastleMountain

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Kumamoto

Kumamoto Castle

熊本城

From a walkway 6 meters above the ground, you look down on stone walls toppled by an earthquake and the repairs happening right now.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 94CastleHilltop

SuicasmoCC BY-SA 4.0Wikimedia Commons

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Hitoyoshi, Kumamoto

Hitoyoshi Castle

人吉城

A castle held by a single family, the Sagara, from the Kamakura period all the way to the Meiji era.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 95CastleHilltop

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Nichinan, Miyazaki

Obi Castle

飫肥城

A castle carved out of a volcanic-ash plateau, fought over by the Ito and Shimazu clans for 84 years.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 96CastleHilltop

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Nakijin, Okinawa

Nakijin Castle

今帰仁城

The walls of the Hokuzan kings snake along the ridge for 1.5 km. Long after the kings fell and the governors left, people kept coming here to pray.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 98GusukuMountain

Kazuhiro TsugitaCC BY 3.0Wikimedia Commons

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Naha, Okinawa

Shuri Castle

首里城

The royal palace has burned five times and been rebuilt every time. The main hall lost in 2019 reopens in its newest form on November 23, 2026.

Japan's 100 Fine Castles No. 100GusukuHilltop

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A dry moat around the site and the path into the enclosure, June 2014. Shinoridate was ringed by earthen ramparts on all four sides, with dry moats dug along natural gullies.

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Hakodate, Hokkaido

Shinoridate

志苔館

Right next to this earthwork fort, three huge jars packed with more than 380,000 coins were dug up. Overlooking the sea, it was an outpost of Japanese settlers who thrived on northern sea trade.

Next 100 Fine Castles No. 101CastleFlatland

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Kaminokuni, Hokkaido

Katsuyama-date

上ノ国勝山館

A fort on the Sea of Japan built by the founder of the Matsumae clan, where over 500 bone and antler tools of the kind used by the Ainu turned up among the finds, suggesting Japanese settlers and Ainu lived side by side.

Next 100 Fine Castles No. 102Fortified residence (yakata)Mountain

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Aomori, Aomori

Namioka Castle

浪岡城

A castle at the northern tip of Honshu where a family said to descend from the noble Kitabatake clan kept up ties with Kyoto. Eight enclosures, split by double moats 20 m wide, fan out across the land.

Next 100 Fine Castles No. 103CastleFlatland

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A grassy dry moat and earthen bank at the Kunohe Castle ruins, photographed around 2007. Stones can be seen along the foot of the slope on the left. The castle's moats were dry and never held water.

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Ninohe, Iwate

Kunohe Castle

九戸城

The last battlefield of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's campaign to unite Japan, with main-enclosure stone walls, raised after the castle fell, that are thought to be the oldest castle walls in the Tohoku region.

Next 100 Fine Castles No. 104CastleHilltop

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Shiroishi, Miyagi

Shiroishi Castle

白石城

The castle of Katakura Kojuro, right-hand man to Date Masamune: allowed to survive as the Sendai domain's second castle after the one-castle-per-province rule, with its three-story turret rebuilt in wood and clay in 1995.

Next 100 Fine Castles No. 105CastleHilltop

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Tsuruoka, Yamagata

Tsurugaoka Castle

鶴ヶ岡城

Every castle building was torn down, yet on the site of the main enclosure stands a shrine that local people built themselves out of devotion to their former lords, the Sakai family.

Next 100 Fine Castles No. 108CastleFlatland

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Yonezawa, Yamagata

Yonezawa Castle

米沢城

The grounds of the shrine to Uesugi Kenshin are also the main enclosure of the castle where Date Masamune was born.

Next 100 Fine Castles No. 109CastleFlatland

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Tsuchiura, Ibaraki

Tsuchiura Castle

土浦城

Tsuchiura's main enclosure, ringed by moats, was said to look like a turtle floating on water, and it still has the only surviving main-enclosure gate tower in the Kanto region.

Next 100 Fine Castles No. 115CastleFlatland

Miyuki MeinakaCC BY-SA 4.0Wikimedia Commons