Home / Read by Theme
ThemeTowns shaped by their castles
A keep that moved in Hirosaki, the red-tiled castle of Aizu, gold-leaf Kanazawa, Takayama after its lords left, delta-built Hiroshima and Shuri Castle: castle towns from north to south.
12 articles
AomoriHirosaki: Castle, Blossoms and Western BuildingsHirosaki, the Tsugaru castle town: the keep moved for wall repairs, Japan's oldest Somei-yoshino, 'Hirosaki-style' pruning and Meiji-era buildings.Read →
MoriokaReading the Castle TownSamurai streets called kōji and merchant districts called chō, bronze finials from the 1600s, the rock-splitting cherry, Tokyo Station's big brother, Morioka machiya and the etiquette of shared springs.Read →
AizuwakamatsuThe Red-Tiled Castle: A Single ReasonAmong surviving Japanese castle keeps, only Tsurugajo has red roof tiles. Not a design choice — a piece of science born from snow country.Read →
TokyoEdo Castle and the Imperial PalaceThe shoguns' vast castle lost its keep in the Great Meireki Fire of 1657 and never rebuilt it. Its gates, place names and path to becoming the Imperial Palace.Read →
KanazawaKanazawa Castle and Its MoatsA castle without a keep, white lead roof tiles, stone walls of every era, Takayama Ukon's moats, an army division and a university inside the castle grounds.Read →
Hida-TakayamaKanamori Nagachika and Takayama CastleKanamori Nagachika took Hida in 1585, built Takayama Castle and laid out a town like Kyoto. Six generations of tea-loving lords, and a town that outlived it.Read →
ToyookaIzushi Castle TownA mountain fortress falls, a new lord builds a lowland castle, and a later lord brings soba noodles along with a scandal that shook the shogunate.Read →
HiroshimaA Castle Town on a DeltaWhy build a castle town on the Ota River delta? Mori Terumoto's castle of 1589, Fukushima Masanori, 250 years of the Asano and land reclaimed from the sea.Read →
HagiOld TownscapeHagi's old castle town has changed so little in layout that you could still walk it with an Edo-period map in hand.Read →
KochiKochi CastleWhy Kochi Castle is one of Japan's twelve original castle keeps, and the only one where the lord's residence survives alongside it.Read →
HakataFukuoka Castle and Ohori ParkDid it have a keep? A castle that turned a bay into its moat.Read →
OkinawaShuri Castle and the Ryukyu KingdomWorld Heritage｜Gusuku Sites and Related Properties of the Kingdom of Ryukyu (2000)The Ryukyu Kingdom, unified in 1429, and Shuri Castle: five fires from 1453 to 2019, each rebuilding, the Shureimon gate and World Heritage status.Read →
