Hirosaki Castle
Interesting facts
- It is the only original castle keep surviving north and east of the Kantō region, and the northernmost of Japan's twelve original keeps.
- In 2015 the whole keep, weighing several hundred tonnes, was jacked up and rolled to a temporary base so the bulging stone wall beneath it could be rebuilt.
- When the keep was pulled back onto its restored base in August 2026, about 4,100 people took turns hauling it by hand.
- The original five-storey keep blew apart in 1627 when lightning set it alight and the fire reached gunpowder stored inside.
- 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.
- To avoid alarming the shogunate, the present keep was officially approved in 1810 as a 'three-storey turret', partly justified by Russian ships appearing in the Tsugaru Strait.
- Only the outward-facing east and south sides carry gables and bay windows; the inner sides are plain, a trick to make a small tower look grand from outside.
- Its roof is covered with copper tiles rather than ceramic ones, chosen to withstand the cold northern winters.
- During repairs to the keep's stone base, workers found stones shaped like squid, which the city playfully named 'squid-ink stones'.
- In 1909 a four-metre bronze statue of the clan founder Tsugaru Tamenobu was raised in the main bailey; it was removed for metal in 1944.
Why it is worth it
Hirosaki Castle is one of the few places in Japan where a castle keep from the Edo period still stands on its original grounds rather than as a concrete reconstruction. Its tenshu is modest — three storeys and 14.4 metres tall — but it rises over a vast fortified park laid out in six concentric baileys, ringed by moats and stone walls and covering roughly 612 by 947 metres. Each spring some 2,600 cherry trees, the first of them planted around 1903, bloom along the moats and ramparts, and the white keep framed by pink blossom has become one of the most familiar images of northern Japan.
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. In 1810 the ninth daimyō, Tsugaru Yasuchika, received permission to build a new three-storey tower, completed in 1811 at the southeast corner of the main bailey rather than on the old southwestern site. Alongside the keep, three corner turrets (yagura), five gates and a guardhouse survive from the Edo period; these structures were designated National Important Cultural Properties in 1950, and the grounds were declared a National Historic Site in 1952. In 2006 the castle was named among the 100 Fine Castles of Japan.
Hirosaki itself grew up as the castle town of the Tsugaru clan in the west of Aomori Prefecture, in the Tōhoku region. Today it is a city of around 157,000 people, best known as Japan's leading apple-growing district, as the home of Hirosaki University, and for its summer Neputa festival of illuminated paper floats. Clusters of Meiji-period Western-style buildings near the castle park reflect the town's role as a regional centre after the end of the feudal era.
Getting there
The castle stands in central Hirosaki, about 1.8 km from the city centre. The nearest airport is Aomori Airport (AOJ), about 24 km away. Hirosaki Station is served by the JR Ōu Main Line, the JR Gonō Line and the private Kōnan Railway.
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From the encyclopaedia
Hirosaki Castle is a hirayama-style Japanese castle constructed in 1611. It was the seat of the Tsugaru clan, a 47,000 koku tozama daimyō clan which ruled over Hirosaki Domain, Mutsu Province, in what is now central Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture, Japan. It was also referred to as Takaoka Castle .
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