Inuyama Castle
犬山城
Japan's oldest standing castle keep, on a bluff over the Kiso River, with a top-floor balcony you can walk all the way round
About Inuyama Castle
Tree-ring dating in 2021 found that the main timbers of Inuyama's keep were felled between 1585 and 1587, which makes it the oldest castle keep still standing in Japan. It is one of five keeps designated as National Treasures, and until 2004 it was the last castle in Japan still in private hands, owned by the Naruse family who had ruled from it through the Edo period. Inside, steep wooden stairs climb from a basement set into the stone base to a lookout room at the top, where a door lets you out above the river. There is no booking system, so on busy days you wait your turn at the keep door.
Essential Tips
Check the crowd calendar on the castle website before you pick a day: most weekdays are marked 'smooth', while blossom weekends, the festival weekend, Golden Week and the late-November holiday weekend are 'very crowded', with waits that can pass two hours
Admission has been ¥1,000 since March 2026, up from ¥550, so older guides quote the wrong price
The ticket booth takes IC cards, QR payments and credit cards, but the set tickets with Urakuen, Meiji Mura or the town museums are cash only
Shoes come off at the keep door and go in a plastic bag that you carry round and take home; you can bring your own bag instead
The stairs from the second basement to the fourth floor are narrow and steep, and there is no lift; wear clothes you can climb in
Large bags are not allowed in the keep: use the lockers by the ticket office or at the Inuyama-jo-mae tourist information office, or the bigger bank outside the ticket gates at Inuyama Station
Selfie sticks, monopods, tripods, live streaming and drones are all banned
The 100 Castles stamp is in the office above the entry gate, inside the paid area, but the gojoin (castle seal) is sold only at the Inuyama-jo-mae tourist information office in the No. 1 car park at the foot of the hill
Pets cannot come in, even in a bag or carrier; assistance dogs can if you call the castle office first
Meitetsu is a private railway, so the JR Pass does not cover the ¥630 ride from Meitetsu Nagoya
The Inuyama Festival brings 13 floats, each 8 metres tall, through the castle town on the first weekend of April, and after dark each one carries 365 lit lanterns
Do not eat while walking in the castle town, even the skewers sold on Honmachi-dori; the castle asks visitors to stop and eat
Don't Miss
The Top-Floor Balcony
A railed walkway runs right round the fourth floor, and Inuyama is the only one of the five National Treasure keeps where you can step out onto it. To the north and west the Kiso River bends below the bluff, with Gifu Castle on Mount Kinka in the distance. To the south the Nobi Plain stretches flat to the Nagoya skyline, with Mount Komaki in between. On clear winter days you can pick out snow on Mount Ontake and Mount Ibuki.
The Stone-Walled Basement Entrance
You go in at the very bottom, through a doorway in the stone base, into the anagura: two basement levels walled by the bare stones of the base and crossed by heavy beams. The passage and stairs were built narrow so the entrance would be easy to hold. Up on the first floor, the tsuke-yagura, a small wing beside the stairs, let defenders shoot at anyone trying to force the door. From there it is steep stairs all the way to the top.
Jodan-no-ma, the Lord's Room
The only tatami room in the keep, added in the Edo period on the first floor, with its floor raised for the Naruse lords and the Owari Tokugawa they served. On its north side is a hidden space where guards could wait out of sight. Elsewhere on the same floor, the pillars by the windows still carry the marks of the oga, a large old-style saw, and the floorboards are held down with square nails.
The Castle Town on Honmachi-dori
The castle town keeps almost the same street plan it had in the Edo period, and the walk from the station runs up its spine, Honmachi-dori, to the foot of the castle hill. The ¥1,200 set ticket adds three stops on or near it. The Castle & Town Museum has a diorama of the town on festival day in 1840, and the Karakuri Museum next door runs live demonstrations of its mechanical puppets. At Donden-kan, four of the 8-metre festival floats stand indoors all year.
The Keep Lit Over the Kiso River
The keep is floodlit from sunset to 10 PM, and it looks best from across the Kiso River, the lit tower standing on its bluff above the water. From June 1 the cormorant fishing boats work the river at night by the light of their fire baskets, with the castle behind them, and from August 1 to 10 the Nihon Rhine summer fireworks go up over the river beside it.
What to Do Here
Opening-Hour Climb
Be at the ticket office on the hill when it opens at 9 AM (8:30 on the festival weekend and in Golden Week). Buy a castle-only ticket from the machines rather than joining the line at the staffed window, show it at the entry gate and head for the keep door. Climb to the balcony first, then take in the gable room, the armoury floor and the jodan-no-ma on the way back down.
Tips:
- The castle posts the live waiting time on its website; check it before you leave Nagoya
- Toilets are just inside the entry gate on the right; there are none in the keep
- Only drinks in capped bottles go into the keep, but you can picnic in the Honmaru inside the gate if you take your rubbish with you
- Free pamphlets in English and several other languages are at the entry gate
Castle Town and Urakuen Half Day
Walk up Honmachi-dori from the station, climb the keep, then walk 650 metres east to Urakuen. The garden was laid out in 1972 around Jo-an, one of Japan's three National Treasure tea rooms, built in Kyoto by Nobunaga's younger brother, the tea master Oda Urakusai, and moved here by Meitetsu. The ¥2,000 set ticket covers the castle and the garden, ¥500 less than paying separately. Finish at Inuyama-yuen Station, 8 minutes from the garden, for the train back to Nagoya.
Tips:
- Urakuen is closed on Wednesdays, and for maintenance on December 14-18, 2026 and February 8-12, 2027
- Urakuen opens 9:30 AM to 5 PM (last entry 4:30 PM); matcha is ¥600, served from 10 AM with last orders at 4 PM
- The castle and Urakuen set ticket is valid for two days and cash only; both ticket offices sell it
- Jo-an's interior opens only at booked special viewings (¥4,000 with tea, 20 places); apply on Urakuen's website
Castle and Meiji Mura Day from Nagoya
Climb the castle at opening, walk back to Inuyama Station and take the Gifu Bus from the east exit to Meiji Mura, an open-air museum of Meiji-era buildings moved from around Japan. One of its landmarks is not Meiji at all: the central entrance of Frank Lloyd Wright's Imperial Hotel, finished in 1923 and rebuilt here after the Tokyo hotel was demolished in 1967. The set ticket saves ¥200 on the two admissions.
Tips:
- The bus to Meiji Mura takes 22-27 minutes and costs ¥540
- Meiji Mura alone is ¥2,500 for adults; the castle and Meiji Mura set ticket is ¥3,300 and valid for three months
- Meiji Mura closes at 4 PM on November weekdays and from December to February (5 PM the rest of the year), with last entry 30 minutes before
- It also has closed days, including December 14-18 and 31, 2026; check its calendar before you go
Plan Your Visit
Opening Hours
keep
9:00 AM – 5:00 PM (last entry 4:30 PM); entry may be limited when it is very crowded
peak Days
8:30 AM – 5:30 PM on the Inuyama Festival weekend and through Golden Week in 2025 and 2026, with last entry still at 4:30 PM
closed Days
December 29-31. The castle also shuts while a storm warning or a level 4-5 weather warning is in force for Inuyama, and reopens about two hours after it is lifted.
light Up
The keep is lit every night from sunset to 10 PM, except on occasional light-down days. The grounds close at 5 PM, so watch it from the castle town or across the Kiso River.
Best Time to Visit
A weekday, at the 9 AM opening. The cherry blossoms, about 400 trees around the castle and along the Kiso River, usually peak from late March to early April, and the Inuyama Festival takes over the castle town on the first weekend of April. The maples over the stone steps up to the keep turn from late November to early December.
Avoid:
Cherry blossom weekends from late March, the Inuyama Festival weekend, Golden Week and the late-November holiday weekend
Nearby
Haritsuna Shrine
A shrine with more than a thousand years in Inuyama, at the foot of the castle hill; one of the three paths up to the keep runs through its grounds, and the Inuyama Festival is its spring festival.
140 m
Castle & Town Museum and Karakuri Museum
Two neighbouring museums on one ¥300 ticket, free for junior high students and under. One covers the castle and town, the other is a working karakuri puppet studio.
350 m
Urakuen and Jo-an Tea House
Meitetsu's garden east of the castle, built around Oda Urakusai's National Treasure tea room; ¥1,500, closed Wednesdays.
650 m
Meiji Mura
Open-air museum of Meiji-era buildings, on the Gifu Bus from Inuyama Station's east exit.
10 km by road from Inuyama Station
Gallery
The keep from across the Kiso River, with the cliff and river that guarded the castle's back
The bell-shaped katomado windows either side of the balcony door are purely ornamental and do not open
Houses here sit on narrow, deep lots, a pattern tied to Edo-period town dues charged by street frontage
The Otemichi has been the way up to the keep since the castle was built, and it is still the route the castle recommends
History
founding
Tradition dates the castle to 1537, when Oda Nobuyasu, uncle of Oda Nobunaga, moved his base here from Kinoshita Castle, a short way to the south. The bluff stands where the Kiso River leaves the hills for the Nobi Plain, facing Mino across the water, and timber floated down from the Kiso valley was passed on here, so the castle changed hands again and again. Nobunaga took it from Nobuyasu's son in 1565, and in 1584, at the opening of the Komaki-Nagakute campaign, Ikeda Tsuneoki crossed the river and seized it for Hideyoshi.
significance
After the 1961-65 repair, the accepted view was that the lower two floors went up around 1537 and the top two were added about sixty years later. Tree-ring analysis commissioned by Inuyama City and announced in March 2021 found that the pillars, beams and floorboards were all cut in the three years from 1585, just after the Komaki-Nagakute campaign. The keep was built in one go, some fifty years later than thought, and it is still the oldest keep standing. It became a National Treasure in 1935 and was designated again under the postwar heritage law in 1952.
reconstruction
In 1617 the shogun Tokugawa Hidetada granted Inuyama to Naruse Masanari, senior retainer of the Owari Tokugawa, and nine generations of Naruse lords held it until the Meiji era. After 1871 Aichi Prefecture took it over and pulled down almost everything except the keep. The 1891 Nobi earthquake half-wrecked the keep, and in 1895 the prefecture handed it to the Naruse family on condition that they repair it; the family and the townspeople of Inuyama raised the money between them. The 1959 Ise Bay Typhoon led to a full dismantling repair from 1961 to 1965, and in 2004 the family passed the castle to a foundation, ending the last private ownership of a castle in Japan.
name Origin
The castle's other name, Hakutei-jo, borrows from Baidicheng, the White Emperor City on a hill above the Yangtze. Tradition credits the Confucian scholar Ogyu Sorai with the comparison, drawn from Li Bai's poem about leaving Baidi at dawn. The foundation that owns the castle today carries the name: the Inuyama Castle Hakutei Bunko.
Getting There
Meitetsu from Nagoya
Station: Meitetsu Nagoya to Inuyama Station
Exit: West exit
Walk: 20 minutes (1.4 km) via Honmachi-dori
Limited expresses and rapid limited expresses take 26-29 minutes; expresses take 35-37. There is no surcharge unless you book a seat in the reserved car (¥450).
Via Inuyama-yuen Station
Station: Inuyama-yuen Station (Meitetsu Inuyama Line), one stop past Inuyama
Exit: Toward Urakuen
Walk: 8 minutes to Urakuen; 18 minutes (1.4 km) to the keep
Rapid limited expresses stop here, 28 minutes from Meitetsu Nagoya. Useful if you are starting or finishing at Urakuen and the Kiso River bank rather than the castle town.
By Car
Station: Komaki IC (Meishin Expressway) or Komakikita IC (Nagoya Expressway)
Exit: Via Route 41
Walk: A short walk up from the city car parks at the foot of the castle
About 25 minutes from either interchange. The No. 1 car park has 140 spaces and opens at 8:30 AM (8 AM at weekends and on holidays); the castle website shows live space in the three castle car parks.
Location
65-2 Inuyama Kitakoken, Inuyama, Aichi 484-0082
Nearest: Inuyama Station (Meitetsu Inuyama Line) (20-minute walk, 1.4 km, from the west exit via Honmachi-dori)
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