Okayama Castle

photo by melvil · CC BY-SA 4.0

photo by takeokahp · CC BY 3.0

Black and gold, ‘the crow’: it burned in 1945 and was rebuilt in 1966 from pre-war drawings.

The tenshu (the main tower of the castle, here six storeys high on an irregular pentagonal plan) overlooks the Asahi River, its black exterior boards edged in gold, hence the nickname 烏城 (Ujō, ‘crow castle’). Inside the tower, rebuilt in reinforced concrete after its wartime destruction, the lift and exhibition rooms were renovated in November 2022; from the top floor the view takes in 360° of the city and the Kōrakuen, the garden on the opposite bank.

Built on the orders of Ukita Hideie, one of the five great vassals of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, between 1590 and 1597. The original tenshu was destroyed in the bombing of Okayama on 29 June 1945; the 1966 exterior reconstruction was based on survey drawings that a Waseda architecture student from Okayama had made as a thesis before the war. Two original structures survived and are National Treasures: the moon-viewing turret (月見櫓) and the Nishinomaru Nishite turret (西丸西手櫓). The castle grounds are a national historic site.

ℹ️ Open 9:00–17:30, last entry 17:00. Adult ticket 500 yen (junior high school students and under free); combined ticket with Kōrakuen 800 yen. Closed 29–31 December.

🚉 Okayama · 23 min walk

Sources: okayama-kanko.jp · ja.wikipedia.org

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