The Most Beautiful Castles, Palaces and Fortresses in Japan
7 places · updated 13 October 2026
In short: By our ranking, the most beautiful castles, palaces and fortresses in Japan are Nijō Castle, Goryōkaku and Himeji Castle. The list covers 7 castles, palaces and fortresses. Last updated 13 October 2026.
Japan's castles were born in the century of civil war that ended around 1600, when rival lords raised steep stone bases topped with tiered wooden keeps, and they were refined in the long peace that followed, when castles became seats of government and display. Fire, earthquakes, demolition orders after 1868 and the bombing of the Second World War destroyed most of them, so the few original keeps that survive are treasured. Alongside them stand palaces and villas that show the courtly side of the same culture.
Himeji Castle, known as the White Heron for its white plastered walls and soaring rooflines, is the largest and best-preserved original castle in Japan and one of its first World Heritage Sites. Matsumoto Castle, by contrast, is black-walled and rises above a moat in the Japanese Alps. Hirosaki Castle in the far north keeps an original keep from the early nineteenth century amid one of the country's most celebrated cherry-blossom parks. In Kyoto, Nijō Castle was built for the first Tokugawa shogun, and its Ninomaru Palace has painted screens and floors that chirp underfoot.
The rest of the picture is surprisingly varied. Goryōkaku in Hakodate is a five-pointed star fort built on a European model in the 1860s, which saw the last battle of the Boshin War. Takeda Castle survives only as stone walls on a mountaintop in Hyōgo, often seen rising above a sea of autumn cloud. The Katsura Imperial Villa in Kyoto, with its tea houses and strolling garden, became a model of restraint for modern architects.
In this list
| # | Place | Type | UNESCO |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nijō Castle | Castle | ✓ |
| 2 | Goryōkaku | Star fort | |
| 3 | Himeji Castle | Castle | ✓ |
| 4 | Hirosaki Castle | Castle | |
| 5 | Katsura Imperial Villa | Palace | |
| 6 | Takeda Castle | Castle ruin | |
| 7 | Matsumoto Castle | Castle |
01 Nijō Castle
Japan · 2 km from Kyoto35.014° N 135.748° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Image by Moechann from Pixabay The Ninomaru Palace is the main reason to come. Its six connected buildings of hinoki cypress are National Treasures, and room after room was painted by artists of the Kanō school on sliding doors and walls, amid lavish gold leaf and elaborate wood carving. The layout sorted visitors by rank: lesser callers waited in the outer rooms, and only important guests reached the inner audience halls. The corridors squeak and chirp underfoot.
Did you know? The lost keep had five storeys; after lightning destroyed it in 1750, a citywide fire in 1788 also wiped out the buildings of the inner ward.
02 Goryōkaku
Japan · 1.4 km from Hakodate41.797° N 140.757° E
Keihin nike · CC BY-SA 3.0 The fort had one brief, dramatic moment. After the shogunate collapsed, loyalist forces retreated to Hokkaido and in 1869 made Goryōkaku the headquarters of the short-lived Republic of Ezo. It became the stage for the week-long final battle of the Boshin War, after which the new imperial government took control of the north and Japan's civil war came to an end.
Did you know? During the 1869 siege the defenders felled the fort's tall drum tower, fearing the government warship Kōtetsu was using it as an aiming point.
03 Himeji Castle
Japan34.839° N 134.694° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Image by Nick115 from Pixabay Himeyama hill was first fortified in 1333 by Akamatsu Norimura during the Genkō War, and the Kuroda clan turned the fort into Himeji Castle in the mid-16th century. In 1581 Toyotomi Hideyoshi added a three-storey keep. The castle we see was the work of Ikeda Terumasa, son-in-law of Tokugawa Ieyasu, who received it after the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600.
Did you know? The keep's first floor, known as the thousand-mat room, has more than 330 tatami, and its racks once held up to 280 guns and 90 spears.
04 Hirosaki Castle
Japan · 4.3 km from Hirosaki40.608° N 140.464° E
掬茶 · CC BY-SA 4.0 The castle was the seat of the Tsugaru clan, rulers of the Hirosaki Domain. Work began in 1603 under Ōura (Tsugaru) Tamenobu, stopped after his death in 1604, resumed in 1609 and was completed in 1611. The original keep was a five-storey tower, but in 1627 it was struck by lightning and burned down, and for nearly two centuries the domain did without one.
Did you know? At the time, the 1627 disaster was blamed on the vengeful spirit of a relative of the clan founder, whose ghost was said to haunt the castle.
05 Katsura Imperial Villa
Japan · 6.4 km from Kyoto34.984° N 135.709° E
John Chang · CC BY-SA 3.0 The buildings are in the sukiya manner, an informal, refined style that grew out of the architecture of the tea ceremony. The Old Shoin of around 1616, the Middle Shoin and the New Palace, added around 1663 for a visit by the retired Emperor Go-Mizunoo, are linked in a staggered diagonal line, a so-called flying-geese arrangement that lets each room open onto its own view of the garden.
Did you know? Prince Toshitada could afford to enlarge the villa after marrying a daughter of the powerful lord of Kaga, which greatly increased his income.
06 Takeda Castle
Japan35.300° N 134.829° E
Baku13 · CC BY-SA 3.0 The castle crowns Mount Kojō, about 353 metres high, also called Torafusu, the crouching tiger, after the shape of its plan. It was founded in the mid-15th century, traditionally in 1441, by Ōtagaki Mitsukage, a retainer of the powerful Yamana clan, to guard the border with the rival Akamatsu and the routes to the Ikuno silver mine.
Did you know? The three wing enclosures were laid out at almost exactly 331 metres, about 20 metres below the 351-metre main enclosure, evidence of careful vertical planning.
07 Matsumoto Castle
Japan · 0.2 km from Matsumoto36.239° N 137.969° E
663highland · CC BY 2.5 The six-storey main keep dates from the 1590s rebuild under Ishikawa Kazumasa, but attached to it is a moon-viewing turret — an open-sided pavilion added later purely so the castle's occupants could sit out and watch the moon over the water.
Did you know? Five of its buildings are National Treasures in their own right, including the small northern tower, the connecting passage and the moon-viewing turret.
How this list is ranked
Places are chosen for how they look, not for how famous they are: each one has its own description and a photograph credited to its author. The order is a single world ranking that weighs the beauty of the place in curated photography together with how widely it is documented — the number of language editions of its encyclopedia article and how often that article is read in a year. The list is rebuilt as places are added, so the order and the counts on this page are always current.
Questions people ask
- What are the most beautiful castles, palaces and fortresses in Japan?
- On our list, Nijō Castle ranks first, followed by Goryōkaku and Himeji Castle.
- How many original castle keeps survive in Japan?
- Twelve castles keep their original keeps from the Edo period or earlier. Five of them, Himeji, Matsumoto, Inuyama, Hikone and Matsue, are designated National Treasures.
- What are the nightingale floors at Nijō Castle?
- The corridors of the Ninomaru Palace squeak with a bird-like chirping when walked on, caused by metal clamps rubbing against nails beneath the boards. The sound is traditionally said to have warned against intruders.
- Why is Himeji Castle called the White Heron Castle?
- Its nickname, Shirasagi-jō, comes from its brilliant white plastered walls and the way its layered roofs resemble a bird taking flight. The plaster also served as protection against fire.
- How many castles, palaces and fortresses are on this list in Japan?
- The list covers 7 castles, palaces and fortresses.