Home ⼎ Kochi Castle
05 — Castle Town
Kochi Castle burned once, in 1727, and was rebuilt faithfully to its original Edo-period design — which is why both the keep and the connected palace-style residence (the Kaitokukan) still stand together today, a combination found nowhere else in Japan.
Of the roughly 200 castles built across Japan in the Edo period, only twelve retain a keep built (or faithfully rebuilt on the original foundation) before the Meiji era — most others were demolished, burned in WWII air raids, or later rebuilt in concrete. Kochi Castle is one of those twelve, and uniquely among them, it also kept the "Kaitokukan," the lord's connected residential hall, giving visitors a rare sense of how keep and living quarters related to each other in practice.
Walking the covered corridor from residence to keep, visitors never have to step outside or remove their shoes along the way — a small design choice that made the castle genuinely livable, not just defensible, and one easy to miss if you're rushing to the top for the view.