Hiroshima Castle
広島城
Mori Terumoto's castle, 980 m from the hypocentre: the 1958 keep is shut, but the moat, the walls and the Ninomaru are free
About Hiroshima Castle
Hiroshima Castle stood less than a kilometre from the hypocentre on August 6, 1945. The blast brought down Mori Terumoto's five-storey keep and the army buildings that filled the grounds, and fire took the old gates and turrets. Its 1958 replacement, a concrete copy, closed on March 22, 2026, because the concrete and the equipment inside had deteriorated, and the city has not yet decided whether to rebuild the keep in wood. You can still walk the moat and the stone walls that came through the bomb, see the keep from outside, and go into the Ninomaru gate and turrets, rebuilt in wood by 1994, all for free. The A-Bomb Dome is 18 minutes south on foot.
Essential Tips
There is no castle museum for now. A new history museum is going up in the Sannomaru, and the city plans to open its ground floor at the end of March 2027 and the whole building on October 1, 2027
The 100 Castles stamp is still at the keep, outside the entrance, together with the castle's own visitor stamp, which used to be on the top floor
The museum shop, which sells the gojoin (castle seal), has moved into the Ninomaru's Tamon-yagura: 9:30 AM to 5 PM from April to September, to 4 PM from October to March
At weekends and on holidays the Aki Hiroshima Busho-tai, a troupe dressed as Mori Motonari and other warlords of the region, parades from the Ninomaru through the grounds
For lunch, the Sannomaru, just west of the Ninomaru, has an okonomiyaki restaurant, a charcoal-grilled eel restaurant and SOKO CAFÉ, a matcha café supervised by the Ueda Soko school of tea
There is no car park in the grounds. The Sannomaru car park, on the north side of Jonan-dori, is 5 minutes' walk from the keep and costs ¥210 per 30 minutes
Don't Miss
The Rebuilt Ninomaru
The Ninomaru is small because it began as an umadashi, a moated yard guarding the way into the main enclosure. Behind its gate stand the Tamon-yagura, a turret 63 m long, and the Taiko-yagura, where a drum once sounded the hours and the opening of the gates. The Edo-period buildings lasted until 1945; these were rebuilt in wood by 1994 from prewar photographs, drawings and excavation, and you can go inside. In the yard is a squat, twisted eucalyptus 740 m from the hypocentre: it lived through the blast, snapped in a 1971 typhoon and grew back from its roots, and it is the only A-bombed eucalyptus still alive.
The Command Bunker and the Scorched Gate
Between the Ninomaru and the Honmaru, the stones of the Naka-gomon gate site are still reddened and cracked from the fire that burned the gate in 1945. Beside them is the half-underground air-defence room of the Chugoku Military District headquarters, 790 m from the hypocentre. A student from Hijiyama Girls' High School, one of the schoolgirls mobilised to work there, used its military telephone to tell army units in Fukuyama and Zentsuji that Hiroshima had been wiped out by a new kind of bomb. It is remembered as the first report of the bombing to leave the city. You cannot go inside, but since 2024 the bunker has been part of a national Historic Site.
Fukushima Masanori's Broken Wall
Fukushima Masanori, who took Hiroshima after Sekigahara, repaired the castle after a flood without the shogunate's permission, and in 1619 the shogun ordered the new work pulled down. The half-demolished stretch at the north-east corner of the Honmaru is thought to be the wall he knocked down, but the shogunate had meant a different section, and he lost Hiroshima for disobeying. On the north and west walls, look for the masons' marks carved into stretches thought to date from his time, and near the keep for the foundation stones of the original keep, lifted out when the concrete one was built.
Cherry Blossom Season
About 350 cherry trees, most of them Somei-yoshino, grow in the grounds and along the outside of the moat. At weekends in blossom season, picnic groups spread out under them. The picnic rules are a historic site's: no fires or stoves, and take your rubbish home.
What to Do Here
Castle and Peace Memorial Park Morning
Cross into the Ninomaru when it opens at 9 AM, then walk up past the scorched Naka-gomon stones and the bunker into the Honmaru. The Imperial General Headquarters stood on its upper level during the 1894–95 war with China; only its foundations are left, and a Kurogane-mochi holly planted in front of it survived the bomb 910 m from the hypocentre. The keep is in the far north-west corner. From there it is 18 minutes on foot to the A-Bomb Dome; carry on through the Peace Memorial Park to the Peace Memorial Museum at its southern end.
Tips:
- Shoes come off inside the Ninomaru turrets: leave them on the racks at the door, or ask at reception for a plastic bag to carry them
- Give the Peace Memorial Museum (¥200 adults) at least 1 to 1.5 hours. It opens at 7:30 AM, but you need an online booking to go in before 8:30 AM
- The Meipuru-pu loop bus stops at the castle and, 4 minutes later, at the A-Bomb Dome, if you would rather ride that leg
Moat Boat
Since October 2025 a wooden boat seating 11 has taken visitors round the inner moat, with commentary in Japanese and English. From the water you look up at the stone walls and the keep from moat level. It leaves from the west side of the moat, beside Route 54, a 2-minute walk from the Sannomaru car park.
Tips:
- There are eleven sailings a day. Around holidays the boat can run daily (it did for Silver Week in September 2026), so check the calendar on the castle's website
- Book online through the castle's website; if the online seats have gone, same-day seats may still be free, so come to the pier 10 minutes before a sailing
- Children of primary school age must ride with an adult, and each adult can take one preschool child free
- Sailings are cancelled in strong wind, rain or dangerous heat, and the castle posts cancellations on its Instagram
Plan Your Visit
Opening Hours
grounds
Free public park; the keep and the Ninomaru are lit up from sunset to 10 PM
ninomaru
Rebuilt Ninomaru buildings: 9:00 AM – 5:30 PM (April – September), 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM (October – March); last entry 30 minutes before closing
keep
Closed since March 22, 2026; seen from outside only
closed Days
Ninomaru closed December 8 and December 29–31, 2026
Best Time to Visit
Late March to early April, for the cherry blossom over the moat, or a weekend or holiday if you want to ride the moat boat.
Avoid:
Cherry blossom weekends. Otherwise rarely congested.
Nearby
Peace Memorial Park and A-Bomb Dome
The Dome stands across the river from the park's northern tip; the Peace Memorial Museum (¥200 adults) is at the southern end.
1.5 km
Hiroshima Station
Shinkansen and JR lines, 25 minutes east on foot, or 10 minutes by tram from Kamiyacho-higashi.
1.9 km
Shukkeien Garden
The Asano lords' garden, begun in 1620 and restored over some 30 years after the bomb, 13 minutes east on foot. ¥350 adults, school pupils free.
1.1 km
Gallery
The original keep had two smaller three-storey keeps joined to it by corridors; they were pulled down in the Meiji era, and only the main keep was rebuilt
Full bloom in Hiroshima fell between March 25 and April 5 every year from 2021 to 2026
The walls and the inner moat are original; most of the outer moat was filled in by 1911
History
founding
Mori Terumoto began the castle on the Ota River delta in 1589, a year after his first visit to Hideyoshi's Osaka Castle, and moved into it in 1591; the walls were finished in 1593 and the whole castle in 1599. After Sekigahara in 1600 it passed to Fukushima Masanori, and in 1619 to the Asano, who held it until the domains were abolished in 1871. The army then took over the grounds. In September 1894, during the war with China, Emperor Meiji came to Hiroshima with the Imperial General Headquarters, which ran the war from the Honmaru, and the Imperial Diet met in the city that October.
significance
The keep was made a National Treasure in 1931. By 1945 the grounds were filled with army buildings, among them the headquarters of the Chugoku Military District, where schoolgirls mobilised from four schools worked alongside the soldiers. On August 6 the keep collapsed and the wooden army buildings around it fell and burned; some 10,000 soldiers are believed to have died in the grounds, and many of the students with them.
reconstruction
A temporary wooden keep went up for an exposition in 1951 and was taken down afterwards. The present keep, in reinforced concrete with the old exterior copied, was finished in March 1958 for the Hiroshima Reconstruction Exposition and opened as a museum that June. It closed on March 22, 2026, after nearly 68 years and more than 13 million visitors. The Ninomaru gate and its bridge were rebuilt in wood between 1989 and 1991, and the three turrets by August 1994.
name Origin
The castle's other name is Rijo, Carp Castle (鯉城). It was already in use by the end of the Edo period, but nobody then wrote down why; the stories tying it to Koi, the old place name west of the castle, first appear in books of the late Meiji era. The Hiroshima Toyo Carp baseball team is named partly after it: the man who chose the name wanted a lucky fish and a nod to Carp Castle.
Getting There
Hiroden tram (lines 1, 2 or 6)
Station: Hiroshima Station to Kamiyacho-higashi
Walk: 10 minutes to the Ninomaru gate through the underground passage, about 15 to the keep
The Hiroshima Station tram stop is on the second floor of the station building, level with the JR central ticket gates, and the ride takes 10 minutes. Pay as you get off. Lines 2 and 6 also stop at Kamiyacho-nishi, just beyond, and go on to the A-Bomb Dome.
Meipuru-pu sightseeing loop bus
Station: Hiroshima Station Shinkansen (north) exit, stop 2, to Hiroshima Castle (Gokoku Shrine)
Walk: 6 minutes from the stop
Buses leave every 10 to 15 minutes from 9 AM to 6 PM and reach the castle stop in 6 minutes. A ¥600 day pass is sold on board. The loop runs one way: after the castle it goes on to the A-Bomb Dome and the Peace Memorial Park.
Walking from Hiroshima Station
Station: Hiroshima Station (JR San-yo Line / San-yo Shinkansen)
Walk: About 25 minutes (1.9 km) west to the Ninomaru gate
A flat walk through central Hiroshima.
Location
21-1 Motomachi, Naka-ku, Hiroshima 730-0011
Nearest: Kamiyacho-higashi tram stop (Hiroden lines 1, 2 and 6) (10 minutes to the Ninomaru gate through the underground passage, about 15 minutes to the keep)
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