Hiroshima Castle

photo by DXR · CC BY-SA 4.0

photo by Jakub Hałun · CC BY 4.0

980 m from the hypocentre, it collapsed in 1945; rebuilt in 1958, it closed again in 2026.

The moat and the stone walls greet you even before the tenshu, which is visible at the far end of the park but has been closed since 22 March 2026 because of its ageing concrete: you walk around it, you do not go in. By contrast, the ninomaru, with its rebuilt buildings, remains free to enter, and the sannomaru, reopened on 29 March, can be visited in full again. A wooden reconstruction has been under study since 2023, but has not yet been decided.

Mōri Terumoto began building it in 1589 on a marshy delta at the mouth of the Ōta River: a site with no natural defences, chosen to assert power through the architectural design alone. It then became the base of the Asano family, who governed the Hiroshima domain from here for two and a half centuries; the castle area has been a National Historic Site since 1953. The original tenshu, about 39 metres high (12.4 of them a stone base), had been a National Treasure since 1931: on 6 August 1945, 980 metres from the hypocentre, it withstood the heat of the bomb but not the blast, and collapsed. It was rebuilt in reinforced concrete between October 1957 and March 1958 for about 36 million yen, and in 2006 it joined the hundred finest castles of Japan (no. 73).

ℹ️ The ninomaru (second enclosure), with its rebuilt buildings, is free to enter: April–September 9:00–17:30, October–March 9:00–16:30. The tenshu closed on 22/03/2026 because of the deterioration of its concrete and can only be seen from outside; the sannomaru reopened on 29/03/2026. Check the status before planning a visit to the museum inside.

🚉 Kenchō-mae · 9 min walk

Sources: hiroshimacastle.jp · hiroshima.keizai.biz · ja.wikipedia.org

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