Kochi Castle
高知城
The only original castle keep still joined to its lord's palace, on a hill above the avenue where Kochi holds its Sunday Market
About Kochi Castle
Kochi is the one castle in Japan where every building of the main enclosure still stands: the keep, the lord's palace, and the gates, turrets and loopholed walls around them. From the Otemon gate you climb 158 stone steps, walk through the palace's tatami rooms into the keep, and come out on a railed balcony that runs all the way round the top floor. The keep was finished in 1749 as a faithful copy of the first one, lost when a town fire spread to the castle in 1727, so a design of the early 1600s stands in 18th-century timber. On Sunday mornings the street market fills the avenue below the gate.
Essential Tips
Aim to pass the Otemon by 4:15 PM: last entry to the palace and keep is 4:30 PM, and the climb takes about 10 minutes
There are no toilets in the keep or the palace; the nearest are in the Ninomaru, the Sannomaru, the Umenodan, the Otemon plaza and the car park
Free lockers (8 large, 10 medium) stand beside the tourist office in the Otemon plaza, and your ¥100 coin comes back; they are locked at 5 PM, so collect your bags before then
Dogs are welcome in the park on a lead or in a carrier, but not in the Honmaru area between the Tsumemon and the Kurogane-mon, not even in a carrier
The 100 Castles stamp is at the keep's ticket window during opening hours; the gojoin (castle seal) is sold at the Kaitokukan reception
Photos and video for your own use are fine inside, but drones are banned in the park, and YouTube, TikTok or live streaming needs the prefecture's permission in advance
From JR Kochi by tram, change at Harimayabashi and take a transfer ticket from the driver (or tap your IC card) so the whole trip costs one ¥230 fare. The city-zone day ticket is ¥500, and the JR Pass does not cover Tosaden trams
At blossom time, picnics under the trees are welcome, but reserving a spot the day before, tents and any kind of fire are not; take your rubbish home
There is no bicycle or motorbike parking at the castle, and cycling in the park is restricted, so leave bikes at a parking area in town
Among the statues in the park is Itagaki Taisuke, the Kochi-born leader of the Freedom and People's Rights Movement, right hand raised: he is calling the crowd to liberty and equality
Don't Miss
The Otemon and the Keep in One Frame
From the street outside the Otemon, the main gate, you see the keep rising straight above it on the hill. Kochi, Marugame and Hirosaki are the only castles where the original main gate and the keep both survive. In front of the gate the approach turns through a square court walled with huge cut stones, where attackers could be fired on from three sides. During work on the gate in 1801, someone wrote on the boards wrapping its pillars: 'I gave up drink, but when I see a sake shop my feet won't carry me past.' That board has since been taken down and is shown inside the keep.
The Kaitokukan Palace
The way into the keep leads through the Kaitokukan, built as the lord's formal audience hall rather than his home. In the jodan-no-ma, the raised room where he received visitors, look for the alcove, the staggered shelves and the decorated doors that hid a space for bodyguards; the transoms carved as breaking waves are credited to the Tosa master carver Takechi Jinshichi. Before the 1727 fire the palace doors were covered in gold leaf, and the rooms were rebuilt without it. The Nando-gura storehouse next door displays transoms from the Ninomaru and Sannomaru palaces, which were pulled down in the 1870s.
The Balcony Round the Top Floor
Kazutoyo is said to have modelled his keep on Kakegawa, his previous castle, and to have wanted its railed balcony badly enough to get Tokugawa Ieyasu's permission for it; no other castle in Shikoku had one at the time. The 1749 rebuild kept the balcony, and as at Inuyama you can step out and walk right round it, with the city spread out below. The keep's four shachihoko, on the top roof and the big roof below it, are bronze, unlike the clay-tile pair on the Otemon. Storms brought one down on July 26 in both 1757 and 1792, and the second time it crashed through the roof of an officials' guardroom.
The Tsumemon, a Gate with a Bridge on Top
The Honmaru sits about 4 m above the Ninomaru, across a dry moat, and the Tsumemon stands in that moat: a gatehouse whose upper floor, once four tatami-floored rooms, is the covered bridge you walk across into the Honmaru. No other gate built like it survives in Japan. The passage underneath, which doubled as a salt store for a siege, does not lead into the Honmaru at all: enter from the east and you come out on the Umenodan terrace to the west. It is normally shut; in 2026 it opened on February 20-26, while the Umenodan's weeping plums were in flower. Until November 2, 2026, parts of the gate are scaffolded for termite repairs.
What to Do Here
Free Volunteer Guide to the Top Floor
Guides from the Tosa Tourist Guide Volunteer Association lead free walks from the tourist office in the plaza by the Otemon, taking in the statue of Yamauchi Kazutoyo and the gate, the stone steps, the statue of Kazutoyo's wife Chiyo, the Tsumemon, the palace and finally the keep. The commentary comes with plenty of Tosa dialect, so it suits Japanese speakers best. Individuals need no booking.
Tips:
- The full walk to the keep's top floor leaves at 9:10 AM and 1:30 PM; a shorter one, about 50 minutes, goes as far as the palace entrance and runs on request through the day
- The guide is free, but inside you still need the ¥500 ticket
- No walks during weather warnings or from December 29 to January 3
- Paid private guides, with the route and timing set to suit you, can be booked through the association at least a week ahead
Sunday Market, Castle, Hirome Market
Kochi's street markets go back to 1690, and the biggest, the Sunday Market, puts more than 300 stalls along about 1 km of Otesuji, the avenue that runs straight east from the Otemon. Farmers sell vegetables picked the day before or that morning, alongside citrus, Tosa knives, saplings and snacks such as imo-ten, sweet potato fried in batter. Walk it from the far end early, reach the Otemon around 8:45 so that you are at the keep as it opens at 9, then come back down for lunch at Hirome Market, about five minutes from the gate.
Tips:
- The market runs every Sunday except January 1-2 and August 10-12, from 5 AM (5:30 AM from October to March); many stalls pack up through the afternoon, and fewer set up on rainy days
- The Kochi Castle Museum of History, across the street from the Otemon, opens at 8 AM on Sundays; the ¥800 set ticket covers it and the keep on the same day, ¥200 less than paying twice
The Keep After Dark
The keep is floodlit every evening from sunset to 10 PM, and in 2014 Kochi was named one of Japan's Three Great Night Castles. The Honmaru closes at night but the rest of the park stays open, so after dinner at Hirome Market you can walk up through the grounds under the lit keep.
Tips:
- The Hanakairo festival, three evenings in early April, is a rare chance to go inside the keep after dark. In 2026 it ran April 3-5, 6 PM to 9 PM (the April 4 evening was called off for a storm); the festival is free and the keep costs the usual ¥500
- At some events the keep also becomes the screen for projection mapping, so check the castle's event listings before you go
Plan Your Visit
Opening Hours
keep
Keep and Kaitokukan palace 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM (last entry 4:30 PM). Hours can be extended in Golden Week (to 6:00 PM, last entry 5:30 PM, on May 2-5, 2026), during the Yosakoi festival and for some events
grounds
Kochi Park is open 24 hours and free; only the Honmaru, with the keep and palace, is closed at night
closed Days
December 26 to January 1
light Up
The keep is floodlit from sunset to 10 PM. In early summer 2026, for the second year running, the lights were switched off because they drew swarming termites to the keep (from June 15, with August 1 set for their return).
works
Termite repairs on the Tsumemon and Rokamon gates run until November 2, 2026 (planned). Parts of the Tsumemon are scaffolded, and part of the Umenodan and part of the Rokamon's upper floor are closed off; the way up from the Ninomaru into the Honmaru stays open, and the keep and palace open as normal.
car Park
Kochi Park car park 7:30 AM – 6:30 PM, every day
Best Time to Visit
Late March to early April. The Somei-yoshino that Kochi's weather observatory watches before declaring the city's cherry blossom stands in the castle's Sannomaru, and it opens around March 22 in an average year (March 16 in 2026). For three evenings in early April, the Hanakairo festival lines the path from the Otemon to the keep with ikebana and lights the cherry trees. The rest of the year, be at the top for the 9 AM opening; on a Sunday, walk the street market below the gate first.
Avoid:
Cherry blossom weekends in late March and early April, Golden Week, and days when a cruise ship is in port
Nearby
Kochi Castle Museum of History
The Yamauchi lords' collection, across the street from the Otemon, with a viewing lobby that looks straight at the keep; ¥500 (¥800 during special exhibitions), 9 AM to 6 PM, from 8 AM on Sundays.
150 m from the Otemon
Kochi Sunday Market (Otesuji)
More than 300 stalls every Sunday, the largest of the street markets Kochi has held since 1690.
Starts at the Otemon and runs about 1 km east
Hirome Market
Kochi's food hall of stalls and shared tables, the place for katsuo no tataki; 10 AM to 11 PM, from 9 AM on Sundays.
400 m from the Otemon
Gallery
The loopholed wall round the stone court in front of the gate runs 71.2 m and has 13 gun ports
The palace got the name Kaitokukan in 1874, when the castle grounds opened as a public park
The balcony railing is lacquered black, with onion-shaped giboshi caps on its posts
The stalls follow the seasons: bamboo shoots in spring, edamame in summer, Niitaka pears and chestnuts in autumn, buntan in winter
History
founding
Tokugawa Ieyasu gave the province of Tosa to Yamauchi Kazutoyo for his part at Sekigahara, and in 1601 Kazutoyo chose Otakasa-yama, a hill on the flood-prone delta where the previous ruler, Chosokabe Motochika, had moved his seat in 1588 and then left, beaten by the floods. Kazutoyo asked Ieyasu to pardon Dodo Tsunaie, a castle builder who had served the losing side, and put him in charge of the works. The Honmaru and Ninomaru were finished in 1603, when Kazutoyo moved in, and the Sannomaru in 1611, ten years after work began.
significance
Fifteen buildings survive, all designated National Treasures in 1934 and Important Cultural Properties since the 1950 heritage law: the keep, the Kaitokukan palace, the Nando-gura storehouse, four gates, two turrets and six loopholed walls. The keep is of the early boro type: a small lookout with a railed balcony, set on top of a big hip-and-gable roof. By the 1740s that form was long out of date, and the keep has it only because it was rebuilt as a copy of Kazutoyo's.
reconstruction
In 1727 a fire in the castle town spread to the castle and destroyed nearly everything except the Otemon. Rebuilding began in 1729. The keep's ridgepole was raised in 1747 and the keep finished in 1749; the last buildings followed in 1753, a quarter of a century after the fire. After the castle was abolished in 1873, everything but the Honmaru buildings and the Otemon was cleared away over the next few years, and in 1874 the grounds opened as Kochi Park. The 1945 air raids damaged the castle but burned none of its buildings, and the keep and the rest were repaired between 1948 and 1959.
name Origin
When Kazutoyo moved in, in 1603, the hill was renamed Kochi-yama, written with characters meaning 'in the river'. The name proved too accurate: after repeated floods, the characters were changed in 1610 to ones meaning 'high wisdom', later shortened to 高知, the name the city took. The castle's other name, Takajo, Hawk Castle, is said to come from its roof tiles and walls, the colours of a hawk's feathers.
Getting There
Tosaden Tram from JR Kochi Station
Station: Kochi-ekimae to Kochijo-mae (change at Harimayabashi)
Walk: 3 minutes to the Otemon gate
About 7 minutes to Harimayabashi, then about 8 minutes west to Kochijo-mae. Tosaden is a private company, so the JR Pass does not cover it.
On Foot from JR Kochi Station
Station: Kochi Station (JR Dosan Line)
Walk: About 25 minutes to the castle
Flat all the way through the city centre; add about 10 minutes for the climb from the Otemon to the keep.
By Car
Station: Kochi IC (Kochi Expressway)
Walk: About 10 minutes on foot from the Kochi Park car park to the keep
About 15 minutes from the interchange. The park car park has 65 spaces and opens 7:30 AM to 6:30 PM; no overnight parking, drop-offs or motorbikes.
Location
1-2-1 Marunouchi, Kochi 780-0850
Nearest: Kochijo-mae tram stop (Tosaden Ino Line) (3 minutes to the Otemon gate, then 158 stone steps up to the Honmaru)
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