Nagoya Castle

This article is based on a visit made in May 2010.

Edit 15 June 2018: Updated article regarding the closing of the main keep and the full re-opening of the Honmaru palace.

Previously on Sekai Ichi, I visited the SCMaglev and Railway Park museum in Nagoya, as a brief stopover on my way from the Fuji Five Lakes to Osaka.  Well, since I'm in the area, I might as well share some stories from my first trip to Japan, which also included a stopover in Nagoya.

I had graduated from college in May of 2010, and right afterwards I went on a week-long tour with my grandmother.  We started with a couple of nights in Tokyo, then a visit to Mount Fuji and the nearby onsen resort of Hakone.  I'll never forget the first onsen bath I had there... so good...  Anyway, the next day was another first: my first ride on the Shinkansen, which we took to Nagoya for a day trip in the city.  And one of the places we went to was Nagoya Castle (名古屋城, Nagoya-jō).

Construction on Nagoya Castle began in 1610 (that means it was the city's 400th anniversary at the time, epic), under the order of shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu (徳川家康, 1543-1616), and each building was completed separately over the next decade.  He and his descendants lived in the castle until 1893, when ownership was transferred to the Imperial Household Ministry, and again to the city of Nagoya in 1930.  During World War II, the castle was used as an army headquarters.  This made it one of the targets for Allied firebombing raids on the city, and so on 14 May 1945, the castle buildings were bombed and burned down.  The main keep was re-constructed with concrete and steel in 1959.

Today, Nagoya Castle is in the middle of an ambitious renovation project.  The buildings of the Honmaru Palace, also destroyed in the air raids, have been rebuilt and reopened in stages.  As of 1 June 2018, the Honmaru palace has been fully reopened to the public.  Beyond that, there are plans to tear down and rebuild the main keep in wood, making it more authentic and also earthquake-resistant.  As such, the main keep has closed to visitors since May 2018.  The keep will be torn down some time in 2019, and completion of this work is scheduled for late 2022.

The moat surrounding the keep was drained out, and all the grass that had grown at the bottom attracted the attention of some deer.  Also in this shot are the stone walls forming the base of the keep.  Uniquely among Japanese castles, the walls curve upward instead of sloping at a straight angle.  This technique, called ogi-kobai (扇勾配, ōgi kōbai) or "fan sloping" for its fan-like shape, helps balance the weight of the structure more evenly.

The Nagoya Castle keep, before its closure in 2018.
By Photo by Gnsin [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0], from Wikimedia Commons

Another unique feature of Nagoya Castle is that its keep consists of not one, but two towers.  The main keep consists of 8 floors, and the sub-keep is 4 floors.  However, from the outside they only appear to have five and two floors respectively.  This was a common trait among Japanese castles, and served to confuse spies who wanted to break in to a specific floor.

The two keeps are joined by a walkway walled on both sides, called the "wall of swords" (剣塀, tsurugi-bei, lit. 'spear fence'), perhaps named because a row of spearheads lining the outside of one of the walls kept invaders from climbing up and into the castle.  As part of the flow of traffic through the modern castle, visitors will enter the sub-keep and walk across this path on their way to the main keep.

The modern-day Nagoya Castle houses a museum, focusing on the history of its development and the society it grew up in.  This is a common use for castles these days, but no less interesting for it.  One of the floors contains re-creations of the old town that grew around the castle, both in life-size and model-size forms.

The museum also displays a rotating collection of weapons and armour from its history, such as this selection of katana swords.  You know, I've always wondered why Japanese swords have curved blades, so I looked it up.  It has something to do with the slurry mixture used to harden the blade during the forging process.  The edge receives less of a coating than the sides and the back, so when the sword is heated, the slurry expands and pushes out more on the dull sides.

One of Nagoya Castle's iconic architectural features are the two golden "dolphins", or kinshachi (金鯱, lit. 'gold tiger-carp') that line its roof.  The folklore creature they were based on, the shachihoko (鯱鉾), was a sort of tiger-headed carp.  They were believed to cause rain, so people placed models of them atop castles as talismans to protect them from fire.  The kinshachi atop Nagoya Castle are plated with 18-karat gold.  The one on the north end is male and the one on the south is female; the male one is slightly bigger.  (And feminism marches on... without them.)  As part of the museum, you can even sit atop a mockup of one of these kinshachi.  Which I did.

The exterior of the Honmaru Palace, upon its reopening in 2018.
By Bariston [CC BY-SA 4.0], from Wikimedia Commons

There's more to Japanese castles than just their keep, though.  Palace buildings around the main keep were used to house visiting dignitaries.  As mentioned above, the Honmaru palace at Nagoya Castle was destroyed in the WWII air raids, but had been reconstructed during the 2010s.  At the time of my visit, it had not yet reopened, so I was unable to check it out.  But, thanks to the many people who have donated pictures to Wikimedia Commons, I can give you an idea.  Here is one of the finished buildings.

The interior of the "Jodan-no-Ma" room, an audience chamber for the daimyo.
By Bariston [CC BY-SA 4.0], from Wikimedia Commons

Visitors may view the Honmaru Palace's rooms from adjacent passageways to witness the artistry of the rooms and their accouterments.  The interiors glow gold from the lacquered sliding doors and panels.  Most of the paintings and sliding doors adorning the palace were put into storage during WWII, thankfully sparing them from the bombings.  Everything else has been reconstructed using the same kinds of materials and techniques as 400 years ago.

Other structures that make up the castle grounds include gates along the outer walls, turret towers at the corners of those walls, warehouses (such as the ones which saved the palace paintings from destruction) and in the case of Nagoya castle, the foundation stones preserved from long-gone buildings.  Perhaps they may be reconstructed some day, just as the Honmaru Palace is today.

There are also vast park grounds within the castle compound.  Here, in one of them, costumed storytellers put on a show whose story escapes me all these years later.

Here I am (left), with my grandmother (right) and Hachimaru (はち丸), the mascot character of Nagoya.  Such a friendly little fellow!

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Hours: Open from 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM.  Admission ends 30 minutes before closing time.  Closed on 29-30 December.

Costs: ¥500.

Address: 1-1 Honmaru, Naka-ku, Nagoya-shi, Aichi-ken 〒460-0031

Access: From Nagoya Station, take the Sakura-dori (S) subway line to Hisaya-Odori (S05, 5 minutes), then take the Meijo (M) subway line to Shiyakusho (M07, 2 minutes, ¥240).

You may also take the Me~guru loop bus from Nagoya Station to Nagoya Castle (22 minutes, ¥210).  If you buy a one-day bus pass (¥500), you can get a ¥100 discount for castle admission when you show it at the ticket counter.

Directions: From Shiyakusho Station, head up the road from exit 7.  The Ninomaru entrance is just two minutes away on your left.  From there, it is an additional five minutes to the central area, including the keep and Honmaru palace.

Website: (English) (Japanese)