Kumamoto Castle

photo by Suicasmo · CC BY-SA 4.0

photo by 663highland · CC BY 2.5

The restoration finishes in 2052: a walkway six metres up takes you inside the building site.

From the entrance you go up onto the walkway: three hundred and fifty metres of path suspended six metres above the ground, opened on 1 June 2020. Below, you pass over the collapsed dry-stone walls and the ‘double wall’, two walls from different periods built one against the other, and the workers on the job. At the end you enter the keep and climb up to the sixth floor.

Katō Kiyomasa built it between 1601 and 1607, and it is famous for its concave curved dry-stone walls, which look climbable from below and turn vertical halfway up. The 2016 earthquake devastated it: the keep became usable again in 2021, the five-storey tower of the 飯田丸 stayed standing, propped on just twelve corner stones (the ‘miracle wall’), and its base was rebuilt in 2024 with 246 load-distribution plates. The 宇土櫓, the only multi-storey tower surviving from the 1607 original, was dismantled for conservation by 2025 and will be reassembled between 2028 and 2032. The walkway was built specifically to show the building site instead of hiding it, and will stay until 2042; the building site until 2052. The earthquake of 28 July 2026 added damage to the walls and towers, and the castle reopened on 13 August after sixteen days of closure for safety checks.

ℹ️ Open 9:00–17:00 from September to June (last entry 16:00, last climb up the keep 16:30) and 9:00–19:00 in July and August (last entry 18:00, last climb 18:30). Tickets 800 yen from high school up, 300 yen for elementary and junior high school pupils, free for preschool children; closed on 29 December. ⚠️ Status as of 18/08/2026, from the official notice: the castle is on normal hours, but the わくわく座 museum remains closed, and so does the museum inside Sakura-no-Baba Jōsaien (the shops and restaurants do not, they are open), and one car park is out of service. The notice itself says the situation changes with the aftershocks and inspections: check again before you set off.

🚉 Kumamoto Castle / City Hall · 6 min walk

Sources: castle.kumamoto-guide.jp · castle.kumamoto-guide.jp · castle.kumamoto-guide.jp · shirobito.jp · kumamotonotebook.com · ja.wikipedia.org

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