Kochi Castle

Kochi is one of the twelve original keeps, but its distinction is different: it is the only castle in Japan where the keep and the honmaru palace - the lord's residence at the top of the hill - both survive from the same period. Everywhere else the residences were demolished, burned or rebuilt, so the sequence of rooms leading to the keep exists nowhere but here. Both date from a reconstruction completed in 1749 after a fire; you walk from the palace's tatami rooms directly into the keep and up its steep floors to an open balcony at the top with a view over the city and the Kagami river. Fifteen structures on the site are important cultural properties. Below the walls a street market has been held every Sunday since 1690, running about a kilometre along the road from the castle gate.

What you actually see

• Keep and residence together - the only surviving pairing of its kind in Japan.
• A 1749 rebuilding - both structures from the same post-fire reconstruction.
• An open top balcony - a walk-out gallery over the city and the river.
• The Sunday market - a kilometre of stalls from the castle gate since 1690.

When to go

Sunday, for the market as well as the castle. Two to three hours.

Honest expectations

The keep stairs are very steep. The walk up from the gate is a climb in itself. Interiors are bare and explanation is largely in Japanese. Summer in Kochi is hot and humid.

Nearby

Hirome Market is beside the castle; Katsurahama is south on the coast.