Nagoya Castle

Nagoya Castle was built from 1610 on Tokugawa Ieyasu's order for one of his sons, and its keep carried a pair of gilded shachihoko - mythical fish - on the roof that became the city's emblem. Both keep and palace burned in 1945. The keep was rebuilt in concrete in 1959 and has been closed to visitors since 2018 on earthquake safety grounds, with a long-running argument about whether to replace it with a wooden reconstruction and how to make that accessible; nothing had been resolved at the time of writing, so the keep can be seen from outside only. What can be entered is the Honmaru Palace: a full reconstruction in wood, completed in 2018, built with traditional joinery from the surviving detailed drawings and photographs, with the painted sliding screens recreated. It is the better half of the visit now.

History

Imagawa Ujichika built an earlier castle, Yanagi-no-maru, here between 1521 and 1528 for his son, and in 1532 Oda Nobuhide took it and renamed it Nagoya Castle. The Owari Domain built the present castle on the site in 1612, at the heart of one of the most important castle towns in Japan (Wikipedia, Nagoya Castle).

What you'll find

• The Honmaru Palace - a full timber reconstruction completed in 2018 from original drawings.
• Recreated screen paintings - the palace interiors repainted to the surviving records.
• The golden shachihoko - the gilded roof fish that are the emblem of Nagoya.
• A closed keep - the 1959 concrete tower, shut since 2018 and seen from outside only.

When to go

Late March for cherry; all year otherwise. Two to three hours.

Practical notes

The keep cannot be entered and there is no announced date for that changing. Entry is charged for grounds and palace. The palace is timed and queues in holidays. Much of the compound is open ground with little shade.

Nearby

Atsuta Jingu is south; the Toyota Commemorative Museum is west.

Key facts