Matsudaira clan

Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima

Aizuwakamatsu Castle

会津若松城

The only castle in Japan today where you can see a keep roofed in red tiles.

Osaka

Osaka Castle

大阪城

Under the stone walls you see today, Hideyoshi's original Osaka Castle lies buried.

Himeji, Hyogo

Himeji Castle

姫路城

A 400-year-old main keep and its three smaller keeps still stand linked by covered corridors, never burned by battle or by bombing.

Komoro, Nagano

Komoro Castle

小諸城

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

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.

Shimabara, Nagasaki

Shimabara Castle

島原城

A castle said to be far too grand for a minor lord held off the insurgents of the Shimabara Rebellion.

Akashi, Hyogo

Akashi Castle

明石城

From the station platform you can see two three-story turrets standing at either end of a long stone wall.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Shirakawa, Fukushima

Komine Castle

白河小峰城

When the earthquake brought its stone walls down, every stone was put back exactly where it came from.

Fukuyama, Hiroshima

Fukuyama Castle

福山城

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

Tamba-Sasayama, Hyogo

Sasayama Castle

篠山城

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

Takamatsu, Kagawa

Takamatsu Castle

高松城

The moats hold 100% seawater: the water rises and falls with the tide, and sea bream swim in the inner moat.

Imabari, Ehime

Imabari Castle

今治城

Todo Takatora built this castle right on the shore, and its broad moat is still filled with seawater.

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.

Ōita, Oita

Funai Castle

大分府内城

A seaside castle whose builder disliked the place name "Unloading" and renamed it "Raising Cargo".

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.

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.

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.

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.

Kishiwada, Osaka

Kishiwada Castle

岸和田城

Hamada, Shimane

Hamada Castle

浜田城

Karatsu, Saga

Karatsu Castle

唐津城

Ōtaki, Chiba

Ōtaki Castle

大多喜城

Gyōda, Saitama

Oshi Castle

忍城

Murakami, Niigata

Murakami Castle

村上城

Shizuoka

Hamamatsu Castle

浜松城

Fukui, Fukui

Fukui Castle

福井城

Fukuchiyama, Kyoto

Fukuchiyama Castle

福知山城

Ōno, Fukui

Ōno Castle

越前大野城

Jōetsu, Niigata

Takada Castle

高田城

Numazu, Shizuoka

Kōkokuji Castle

興国寺城

Toyooka, Hyogo

Izushi Castle

出石城

Kasugai, Aichi

Owari Yoshida Castle

吉田城

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.

Yamatokōriyama, Nara

Kōriyama Castle

大和郡山城

Shimada, Shizuoka

Suwahara Castle

諏訪原城

Saku, Nagano

Tatsuoka Castle

龍岡城

Nisshin, Aichi

Iwasaki Castle

岩崎城

Kitsuki, Oita

Kitsuki Castle

杵築城

Noda, Chiba

Sekiyado Castle

関宿城

Kazo, Saitama

Kisai Castle

騎西城

Takasaki, Gunma

Takasaki Castle

高崎城

Shizuoka

Ojima Jin'ya

小島陣屋

Katsuyama, Fukui

Katsuyama Castle

勝山城

Anjō, Aichi

Anjō Castle

安祥城

Tsuruga, Fukui

Tsuruga Castle

敦賀城

Kuwana, Mie

Kuwana Castle

桑名城

Fukaya, Saitama

Fukaya Castle

深谷城

Iiyama, Nagano

Iiyama Castle

飯山城

Tatebayashi, Gunma

Tatebayashi Castle

館林城