Nagoya Castle
名古屋城
The 1959 keep is shut, but the Owari lords' palace beside it has been rebuilt in cypress and gold leaf
About Nagoya Castle
Nagoya Castle's keep, the green-roofed tower with a golden shachihoko at each end of its ridge, has been closed since May 2018 because of its poor earthquake resistance, and the city's plan to rebuild it in timber has no completion date. Come for the Honmaru Palace beside it. Built in 1615 for the lords of Owari and burned with the keep in 1945, it was rebuilt in hinoki cypress between 2009 and 2018, and you walk its rooms in socks past copies of the Kano-school tigers and leopards on gold leaf. More than a thousand of the original panels were taken down in wartime and survived, and the Nishinomaru treasure hall shows some of them in changing exhibitions.
Essential Tips
Check the castle's website on the way: it shows the current wait for the Honmaru Palace and the treasure hall
Palace and treasure hall entry stops at 4:00 PM, and the palace is a 10-minute walk from either gate, so be at its door, not the gate, by 4
The palace has no heating, air conditioning or toilets, and the lights are kept low to match the Edo period; use the toilets before you go in
No food or drink in the palace, and keep your hands off the sliding doors, screens and metal fittings
Coin lockers are at the main and east gates, and the information desk inside the main gate keeps anything bigger for ¥300 a piece
Tea at the Ninomaru Chatei is ¥700 for matcha with a sweet or ¥800 with gold leaf; on the 8th of each month it is made in a golden kettle
Free English tours by the Aichi Goodwill Guide Network leave the main and east gates at 12:30 PM daily except December 29 to January 4; they are paused until September 30, 2026
Nagoya-jo Station was called Shiyakusho (City Hall) until January 2023, and the bus stops beside it still use the old name
Pets on a lead may come into the grounds, but not into the palace or the treasure hall
Closed December 29 to January 1 and open on all other days, Mondays included
Don't Miss
Honmaru Palace
This is the visit. The palace was the Owari lord's home and office until the first lord, Yoshinao, moved out in 1620, then a lodging kept for the shogun, and it has been rebuilt as it stood once the Jorakuden wing was added for the third shogun, Iemitsu, in 1634. Ceilings, carved transoms and metal fittings grow grander as the rooms rise in rank, up to the Jorakuden, painted by Kano Tan'yu when he was 33. The shogun's steam bath and the Kuroki Shoin, built of pine rather than cypress and said to have come from Ieyasu's lodging at Kiyosu Castle, have their own entrance, so look for it when you come out.
The Keep and Its Golden Shachihoko
You can only look at it from outside, but the keep is still the photo. The 1959 concrete tower copies the lost original's exterior from survey drawings made in the 1930s, and the shachihoko on its ridge, tiger-headed fish believed to call down water against fire, are clad in 18-carat gold plate; the male at the north end stands 2.62 m tall. The castle's own favourite angles are from the Nishinomaru over the southwest turret, from beside the southeast turret over the palace roofs, and from the outer moat with the northwest turret in front.
Nishinomaru Treasure Hall
Opened in November 2021 on the site of the Nishinomaru rice storehouses, and built to look like two of them, the Nishinomaru Okura Johokan is where the castle shows its own collection, including original panels from the palace. Exhibitions change every month or two, so what you see depends on the date: from October 1 to November 29, 2026 it is a special exhibition on the golden shachihoko, with prewar drawings, photographs and scales from the originals.
Ninomaru Garden
The lords' garden lies east of the Honmaru, on the north side of the Ninomaru palace, which is long gone. The first lord laid it out in the 17th century and the tenth, Naritomo, enlarged it between 1818 and 1830; the Meiji army cleared much of it, but the rocky North Garden survived. The surviving parts became a Place of Scenic Beauty in 1953, and almost the whole garden was added in 2018 after digs found the old layout underground. The Ninomaru Chatei on its west side serves matcha with a sweet.
The Edo-Period Turrets and Gates
Three corner turrets and three gates came through 1945, and all are Important Cultural Properties. The southwest and southeast turrets of the Honmaru, built around 1612, look two storeys high but have three floors inside; the southwest one fell with its wall in 1921, and the Imperial Household Ministry rebuilt it in 1923 with chrysanthemum crests on the ridge tiles instead of the Tokugawa hollyhock. The iron-clad Omote Ni-no-mon, the south gate into the Honmaru, has round gunports in the walls beside it. The turrets are normally closed, but the southwest one opens from October 31 to November 8, 2026.
What to Do Here
Palace-First Morning Circuit
Come in by the main gate at 9:00, cross the Nishinomaru, pass through the Omote Ni-no-mon and go straight into the palace. Afterwards look up at the keep from the north side of the palace, one of the castle's own photo spots, and leave the Honmaru by its east gate. The Kiyomasa stone is set in the wall just inside it: about ten tonnes, the biggest in the castle's walls, and named after Kato Kiyomasa, who built the keep's base, though this stretch of wall was Kuroda Nagamasa's. Finish with tea in the Ninomaru Garden and go out by the east gate to the Muneharu Zone for lunch.
Tips:
- If the palace wait on the castle's website is long, see the treasure hall by the main gate first
- Visitors in bare feet or stockings are given slippers at the palace door, and suitcases go in free lockers inside the entrance
- Photos are allowed in the palace, but not with flash
- The noodle restaurant inside the grounds serves kishimen, Nagoya's flat udon, until 4:00 PM last orders
Festival Evenings
The grounds normally close in the late afternoon, but a few festivals keep them open after dark. The cherry blossom festival (March 20 to April 5 in 2026, late March to early April in 2027) lights the trees after sunset, the summer festival in mid-August brings a big bon dance, and this autumn the Be GOLD light-up plays across the keep, the walls and the Ninomaru Garden with projection mapping, lasers and mist.
Tips:
- Be GOLD runs 5:00 to 8:00 PM from September 19 to October 4 and October 18 to 24, 2026, with the grounds open until 7:30 PM
- On those evenings the palace takes visitors until 7:00 PM, and until October 24 you can step into the second room of its entrance hall, normally closed, where the bamboo-grove tigers run round all four walls
- Outside festival time the keep is still floodlit every night until 11 PM (9:30 PM on the 8th of each month)
- Bring a layer in blossom season: early April in Nagoya averages 18°C by day and 8°C at night
Castle Plus Tokugawa Half Day
Pair the castle with the Tokugawa Art Museum, which keeps more than 10,000 objects handed down in the Owari Tokugawa family, from Ieyasu's belongings to the lords' own furnishings, and Tokugawaen, the garden next door on the site of a family residence. The Me~guru bus takes 16 minutes from the castle stop to the museum.
Tips:
- The museum (with the Hosa Library) is ¥2,000 for adults and free for junior high age and younger, open 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM (last entry 4:30 PM)
- It closes on Mondays (the next weekday after a Monday holiday) and from December 14, 2026 to January 4, 2027
- The National Treasure Tale of Genji scrolls are shown only briefly each November: November 14 to 29 in 2026
- The Me~guru one-day pass (¥500) takes ¥200 off the museum and also gives a discount at the castle
- Do the castle first at opening; the museum suggests 60 to 90 minutes inside
Plan Your Visit
Opening Hours
grounds
9:00 AM – 4:30 PM (gates close at 5:00 PM)
honmaru Palace
Entry 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM (a 10-minute walk from either gate)
nishinomaru Treasure Hall
Entry 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM; 5 minutes from the main gate, 10 from the east gate
main Keep
Closed to entry since May 7, 2018; seen from outside only
evening Opening
Autumn 2026: open until 7:30 PM (gates close 8:00 PM) from September 19 to October 4 and October 18 to 24, with the Be GOLD light-up from 5:00 PM and palace entry until 7:00 PM
closed Days
December 29 – January 1
Best Time to Visit
The 9:00 AM opening on a weekday, going straight to the Honmaru Palace before the queue for it builds. For cherry blossoms, the Somei-yoshino usually peak around the turn of March and April: Nagoya's full bloom came on March 30 in 2026 and April 4 in 2025.
Avoid:
Weekend late mornings and afternoons, cherry blossom weekends in late March and early April, and Golden Week
Nearby
Kinshachi Yokocho
Two food streets: the Yoshinao Zone by the main gate has Yabaton's miso katsu, Yamamotoya Sohonke's miso-nikomi udon and a hitsumabushi eel house, and the Muneharu Zone by the east gate stays open until 10 PM.
At the main and east gates
Meijo Park
The big park north of the moat, with a lawn, Ofuke pond and the TONARINO cafes and restaurants by Meijo-koen Station.
900 m
Nagoya Noh Theater
Opposite the main gate: the city's Noh theatre, with 630 seats, a stage of Kiso cypress and an exhibition room open until 5 PM.
200 m
Tokugawa Art Museum & Tokugawaen
The Owari Tokugawa family collection and the garden beside it; both close on Mondays.
3 km, by Me~guru bus
Sakae
Nagoya's main shopping and dining district, south of the castle on foot or two stops on the Meijo Line from Nagoya-jo Station.
1.8 km
Gallery
The stone base is the original: by 1752 it had sunk and tilted the keep, so the domain levered the tower up about 60 cm and re-laid the stones beneath it
Artists have been copying the palace's surviving panels since 1992, and the work is still going on
The female, at the south end, is the smaller of the pair but has more scales: 126 to the male's 112
Most shops in the Yoshinao Zone close at 5:30 PM; the Muneharu Zone by the east gate serves until 10 PM
The weeping cherries in the Nishinomaru come out from mid-March, ahead of the Somei-yoshino
About 30,000 square metres, enlarged by the tenth lord between 1818 and 1830 and still being restored
History
founding
In 1609 Tokugawa Ieyasu ordered a new castle on the Nagoya plateau, because Kiyosu, the old centre of Owari, was too exposed to floods. Work began in 1610, with 20 daimyo, mostly from western and northern Japan, made to build the stone walls; Kato Kiyomasa took on the keep's base and is said to have finished it in under three months. The keep was up in 1612 and the Honmaru Palace in 1615, and the townspeople of Kiyosu were moved to the new town, whose grid became the pattern for central Nagoya.
significance
The castle held the Tokaido, the road between Kyoto and Edo, while the country was still unsettled, and for about 260 years it was the seat of the Owari Tokugawa, the senior of the three Tokugawa branch houses, founded by Ieyasu's ninth son Yoshinao. Its golden shachihoko made it famous: travellers on the Tokaido sang that not even the ruler of the realm could match Owari's gold shachi left out in the rain, and when the domain ran short of money the gold was recast, three times before the Meiji era. In 1930 the keep, the palace and 22 other buildings became the first castle buildings in Japan listed as National Treasures.
reconstruction
On the morning of May 14, 1945, B-29s firebombed northern Nagoya and the keep and the palace burned; the fire is thought to have started in scaffolding put up to take the shachihoko down. Of the palace's paintings, 1,049 panels had been taken down and stored, and 1,047 of them are now Important Cultural Properties. The keep was rebuilt in steel and concrete in 1959, largely with public donations, and the palace in hinoki from 2009 to 2018, using Edo-period drawings, glass-plate photographs and the survey drawings made from 1932. The city plans to replace the concrete keep with a timber one built from the same records; it has a draft plan and a chosen design for a wheelchair lift, but no date.
Getting There
Subway Meijo Line
Station: Nagoya-jo Station (formerly Shiyakusho)
Exit: Exit 7
Walk: 5 minutes to the east gate
The standard route. From Nagoya Station the quickest way is the Sakura-dori Line three stops to Hisaya-odori, then the Meijo Line one stop towards Ozone, about 8 minutes on the trains. The Higashiyama Line to Sakae, then two stops on the Meijo Line, takes a few minutes longer.
Me~guru Sightseeing Bus
Station: Nagoya Castle stop, at the main gate
Walk: At the gate
From stop 11 at the Nagoya Station bus terminal the bus reaches the castle in 23 minutes, via the Toyota Commemorative Museum and Noritake Garden; the 8:30 and 9:00 AM departures run straight there in 15 minutes. Every 30 to 60 minutes on weekdays and every 20 to 40 minutes at weekends; no service on Mondays (the next weekday when Monday is a holiday) or from December 29 to January 3.
Subway Tsurumai Line
Station: Sengencho Station
Exit: Exit 1
Walk: 12 minutes to the main gate
The way in from Osu: Osu Kannon to Sengencho is 6 minutes with no change. From Nagoya Station you change at Marunouchi or Fushimi.
Location
1-1 Honmaru, Naka-ku, Nagoya 460-0031
Nearest: Nagoya-jo Station (Meijo Line, formerly Shiyakusho Station) (5 minutes from Exit 7 to the east gate)
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