Japan’s Top 100 Castles

Guideto Japan

Travel History Mar 14, 2023

A list of 100 castles compiled by the Japan Castle Foundation highlights the country’s most culturally and historically significant fortresses.

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The Japan Castle Foundation published its list of the country’s top 100 castles in 2006 to highlight notable fortresses and encourage visits. The selection includes five castles currently designated as national treasures: Hikone, Himeji, Inuyama, Matsue, and Matsumoto. Himeji Castle is also a UNESCO World Heritage site in its own right, while Okinawa’s castles or gusuku are part of the Gusuku Sites and Related Properties of the Kingdom of Ryūkyū, and Nijō Castle is included in the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto.

Hikone Castle. (© Pixta)

The castles were chosen based mainly on their importance as cultural assets or historic sites, their historical significance, and as representatives of different areas and periods. Discussions by a committee of experts also took into account their state of preservation and relation to castle development. While most of Japan’s castles were constructed between the early fourteenth and seventeenth centuries, and particularly in the Warring States period (1467–1568), the list takes in the full sweep of history.

The oldest entry is the Yoshinogari site in Saga Prefecture, a moated village dating back to the Yayoi period (ca. 300 BC–300 AD). Early fortresses were utilitarian, and this continued even into the Warring States period, with its yamajiro, or mountain castles. The warlord Oda Nobunaga (1534–82) instigated a shift to spectacular constructions as a show of power with his Azuchi Castle. Although destroyed at the time of Nobunaga’s death, three years after it was built in 1579, it was influential on later development.

Goryōkaku in Hakodate, Hokkaidō, was constructed in the nineteenth century. (Courtesy of Hakodate City Department of Tourism)

Some of Japan’s best-known castles were built from the late sixteenth to early seventeenth century. This was the time of the construction of the iconic fortresses with central keeps, stone walls, and moats that now form the popular image of the Japanese castle. In the long peace that continued for most of the Edo period (1603–1868), the age of castle building was largely over. However, one latecomer on the list is the Western-style Goryōkaku in Hakodate, Hokkaidō, for which construction began in 1857 after the Japan-US Treaty of Peace and Amity made the city an open port.

Natural disasters, planned destruction under new regimes at the start of the Edo period and Meiji era (1868–1912), and World War II air raids destroyed many historic structures. In fact, there are only 12 castles with central keeps built prior to 1868 that survive intact in their premodern forms. Thus, many castles one can visit today are modern reconstructions, but their attention to historical detail and engaging exhibits ensure their ongoing popularity.

Osaka Castle, reconstructed in 1931, attracts more than 2.5 million visitors each year. (© Pixta)

Japan’s Top 100 Castles

Hokkaidō and Tōhoku

Nemuro Peninsula Chashi Sites (Hokkaidō) (16th to 18th century)
Goryōkaku (Hokkaidō) (1857)
Matsumae Castle (Hokkaidō) (1606)
Hirosaki Castle (Aomori Prefecture) (1611)
Ne Castle (Aomori Prefecture) (1334)
Morioka Castle (Iwate Prefecture) (1598)
Taga Castle (Miyagi Prefecture) (724)
Sendai Castle /Aoba Castle (Miyagi Prefecture) (1600)
Kubota Castle (Akita Prefecture) (1603)
Yamagata Castle (Yamagata Prefecture) (1357)
Nihonmatsu Castle / Kasumigajō (Fukushima Prefecture) (1414)
Aizuwakamatsu Castle / Tsurugajō (Fukushima Prefecture) (1384, 1593)
Shirakawa Komine Castle (Fukushima Prefecture) (1369, 1632)

Kantō and Kōshin’etsu

Mito Castle (Ibaraki Prefecture) (1214, 1624)
Ashikaga Residence (Tochigi Prefecture) (ca. 12th century)
Minowa Castle (Gunma Prefecture) (ca. 1500)
Kanayama Castle (Gunma Prefecture) (1469)
Hachigata Castle (Saitama Prefecture) (1476)
Kawagoe Castle (Saitama Prefecture) (1457)
Sakura Castle (Chiba Prefecture) (ca. mid-16th century, 1611)
Edo Castle (Tokyo) (1457, 1607)
Hachiōji Castle (Tokyo) (ca. 1584)
Odawara Castle (Kanagawa Prefecture) (ca. mid-15th century)
Takedashi Residence (Yamanashi Prefecture) (1519)
Kōfu Castle (Yamanashi Prefecture) (1590s)
Matsushiro Castle (Nagano Prefecture) (ca. 1560, 1622)
Ueda Castle (Nagano Prefecture) (1583)
Komoro Castle (Nagano Prefecture) (1554, 1590)
Matsumoto Castle (Nagano Prefecture) (National Treasure) (1593–94)

Matsumoto Castle. (© Pixta)
Takatō Castle (Nagano Prefecture) (ca. 14th century, 1547)
Shibata Castle (Niigata Prefecture) (1598)
Kasugayama Castle (Niigata Prefecture) (ca. 15th century, ca. mid-16th century)

Hokuriku and Tōkai

Takaoka Castle (Toyama Prefecture) (1609)
Nanao Castle (Ishikawa Prefecture) (first half of 16th century)
Kanazawa Castle (Ishikawa Prefecture) (1580, 1583)
Maruoka Castle (Fukui Prefecture) (1576, 1624–44)
Ichijōdani Castle (Fukui Prefecture) (Second half of 15th century)
Iwamura Castle (Gifu Prefecture) (1185)
Gifu Castle (Gifu Prefecture) (1201)
Yamanaka Castle (Shizuoka Prefecture) (ca. 1530–60)
Sunpu Castle (Shizuoka Prefecture) (1585)
Kakegawa Castle (Shizuoka Prefecture) (ca. 1512, 1590)
Nagoya Castle (Aichi Prefecture) (1610)
Okazaki Castle (Aichi Prefecture) (ca. 1455)
Nagashino Castle (Aichi Prefecture) (1508)
Iga Ueno Castle (Mie Prefecture) (1585, 1608)
Matsusaka Castle (Mie Prefecture) (1588)

Kansai

Odani Castle (Shiga Prefecture) (ca. 1525)
Hikone Castle (Shiga Prefecture) (National Treasure) (1607)
Azuchi Castle (Shiga Prefecture) (1579)
Kannonji Castle (Shiga Prefecture) (14th to 15th century)
Osaka Castle (Osaka Prefecture) (1583, 1620)
Chihaya Castle (Osaka Prefecture) (1332)
Takeda Castle (Hyōgo Prefecture) (1443)
Sasayama Castle (Hyōgo Prefecture) (1609)
Akashi Castle (Hyōgo Prefecture) (1619)
Himeji Castle (Hyōgo Prefecture) (National Treasure / UNESCO World Heritage) (1580, 1601)
Akō Castle (Hyōgo Prefecture) (1661)
Takatori Castle (Nara Prefecture) (1332, 1585)
Wakayama Castle (Wakayama Prefecture) (1585)

Chūgoku and Shikoku

Tottori Castle (Tottori Prefecture) (ca. mid-16th century, 1617)
Gassantoda Castle (Shimane Prefecture) (late 1150s)
Tsuwano Castle (Shimane Prefecture) (1295, 1605)
Tsuyama Castle (Okayama Prefecture) (1604)
Bitchū Matsuyama Castle (Okayama Prefecture) (1240)
Ki Castle (Okayama Prefecture) (ca. 7th century)
Okayama Castle (Okayama Prefecture) (1597)
Fukuyama Castle (Hiroshima Prefecture) (1619)
Kōriyama Castle (Hiroshima Prefecture) (ca. mid-14th century, ca. 1551)
Hiroshima Castle (Hiroshima Prefecture) (1589)
Iwakuni Castle (Yamaguchi Prefecture) (1608)
Hagi Castle (Yamaguchi Prefecture) (1604)
Tokushima Castle (Tokushima Prefecture) (1586)
Takamatsu Castle (Kagawa Prefecture) (1587)
Marugame Castle (Kagawa Prefecture) (1597, 1660)
Imabari Castle (Ehime Prefecture) (1602)
Yuzuki Castle (Ehime Prefecture) (ca. 1335)
Matsuyama Castle (Ehime Prefecture) (1602)
Ōzu Castle (Ehime Prefecture) (1331)
Uwajima Castle (Ehime Prefecture) (1601, ca. 1666)
Kōchi Castle (Kōchi Prefecture) (1601)

Kyūshū and Okinawa

Fukuoka Castle (Fukuoka Prefecture) (1601)
Ōno Castle (Fukuoka Prefecture) (665)
Nagoya Castle (Saga Prefecture) (1592)
Yoshinogari (Saga Prefecture) (1st to 3rd century)
Saga Castle (Saga Prefecture) (1608)
Hirado Castle (Nagasaki Prefecture) (1704)
Shimabara Castle (Nagasaki Prefecture) (1618)
Kumamoto Castle (Kumamoto Prefecture) (1607)
Hitoyoshi Castle (Kumamoto Prefecture) (1199)
Ōita Funai Castle (Ōita Prefecture) (1597, 1602)
Oka Castle (Ōita Prefecture) (1185, 1596)
Obi Castle (Miyazaki Prefecture) (14th century, 1686)
Kagoshima Castle (Kagoshima Prefecture) (ca. 1601)
Nakijin Castle (Okinawa) (UNESCO World Heritage) (ca. 13th century)
Nakagusuku Castle (Okinawa) (UNESCO World Heritage) (ca. mid-14th century)
Shuri Castle (Okinawa) (UNESCO World Heritage) (ca. 14th century)

(Originally written in English based on information from the Japan Castle Foundation. Banner photo: Himeji Castle. © Pixta.)

World Heritage castle