Kochi Castle

photo by kdewa · CC BY 3.0

photo by Saigen Jiro · CC0

Burnt down in 1727, it was rebuilt in 1749, faithful to the style of the early seventeenth century.

Founded in 1601 by Yamauchi Kazutoyo, who moved here from Kakegawa after the Battle of Sekigahara, the castle lost almost all its buildings in a fire in 1727: only the main gate survived. The reconstruction, completed in 1749, faithfully reproduced the original early seventeenth-century style, which is why the present keep, although a building from well into the Edo period, still reads as Momoyama architecture. The castle is the only one in Japan where the keep and the lord's residential palace, here called the Kaitokukan, are both still standing, side by side.

Seat of the Tosa domain throughout the Edo period under the Yamauchi clan, the castle became a public park in 1874. Fifteen buildings, including the keep, the Kaitokukan and the Otemon gate, are national Important Cultural Properties (designated National Treasures in 1934 under the law of the time, and redesignated in 1950 as 重要文化財 under the current law on cultural properties); since 2006 it has been No. 84 of the 100 most famous castles in Japan (日本100名城).

ℹ️ Open 9:00–17:00, last entry 16:30, closed from 26 December to 1 January. Adult ticket ¥500 (groups of 20+ ¥340), combined ticket with the castle history museum ¥800–1,040. Paid car parks (65 cars, 20 buses); 25 minutes' walk from JR Kochi Station. Address: 〒780-0850 高知県高知市丸ノ内1-2-1, tel. 088-824-5701.

🚉 Iriake · 9 min walk

Sources: kochi-tabi.jp · ja.wikipedia.org · heiwa-ga-ichiban.jp · ja.wikipedia.org

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