Aichi · NagoyaNo.492★★★Open in map →

Nagoya Castle

historyThe classic — done right

The building everyone photographs is the one you cannot enter — the keep has been closed for years. What is open is the better half: a palace rebuilt in timber from the original drawings, three surviving Edo turrets, and the lord's garden.

FromNagoya Station
~20 minSubway Meijo Line
Get off atNagoyajo Station (Subway Meijo Line)
On foot
Nagoya Castle

Directions ↗

Where it is

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What to look for — in walking order

Garden of the second enclosurethe Ninomaru garden, laid out for the Owari Tokugawa and described by the castle as the largest daimyo garden in the country
Southeast and southwest turretscorner turrets standing since the castle was built, designated Important Cultural Properties
Honmaru Palacea timber reconstruction of the shogun's lodging, its rooms lined with reproduced screen paintings
The keep and its golden shachihokoclosed to entry, but the gilded pair on the roof reads clearly from the Honmaru courtyard
Nishinomaru Okura Josaikanthe exhibition hall inside the Main Gate, showing the castle's own collection

How to actually get there

Nagoya Station → Sakae (Subway Higashiyama Line).
Sakae → Nagoyajo (Subway Meijo Line).
Exit 7 → East Gate ticket window (short walk along the moat).
East Gate → second-enclosure garden → Honmaru Palace → keep → exhibition hall → Main Gate.

Subway from Nagoya Station via Sakae: Nagoya Station →(Higashiyama Line)→ Sakae, change there to the Meijo Line →(towards Ozone)→ Nagoyajo Station. Both lines run every few minutes, so no timetable planning is needed. Allow about 20 minutes from platform to ticket window.
Return from Nagoyajo Station: Take the Meijo Line back to Sakae and change to the Higashiyama Line for Nagoya Station. Subway services run late into the evening, so the return needs no planning. What sets your turnaround is the castle itself, which shuts in the late afternoon.

Directions from my location (Google Maps) ↗

About the place

Nagoya Castle sits on flat ground in the middle of the city, a few minutes from a subway exit built in the shape of one of its own gates. Moats and stone walls enclose a park you enter from the Main Gate on the west or the East Gate on the east. The route inside runs past the garden of the second enclosure, over the inner moat, and into the Honmaru, where the palace and the keep stand side by side. The keep is closed to entry. The palace, the turrets, the walls and the gardens are not, and walking them properly fills a morning.

How to enjoy it

The grounds open at 9:00 and close at 16:30, and the Honmaru Palace stops admitting visitors at 16:00, so the palace is what you plan the day around. Arrive near opening and you can walk its rooms before the tour groups reach them, then take the turrets and the garden slowly on the way out.

Background & history

Tokugawa Ieyasu ordered the castle built in 1610 for his ninth son, and lords from across the country were made to haul the stone. Its keep and its Honmaru Palace stood until American air raids burned them in 1945. A concrete keep went up in 1959, crowned once more with the golden shachihoko that had become the city's emblem. The palace took the slower road: rebuilt in timber from surviving plans and photographs, it opened in full in 2018.

Before you go

Cash: Admission is paid at the gate: 500 yen for adults when this was checked, free for junior high school age and under. The city has announced an increase, so treat that figure as current only for now. Subway tickets are bought from machines in the station. The two car parks, by the Main Gate and the second enclosure, are paid by the half hour.
Good to know: The keep is closed to entry with no announced reopening date; the wooden reconstruction is still at the preparation stage. The grounds shut for a few days over the New Year. Most of the walk is outdoors with little shade, which matters in a Nagoya summer.
Another way: The Meguru sightseeing loop bus from Nagoya Station stops at the castle. On the subway, the Tsurumai Line to Sengencho also works and leaves a walk of about 12 minutes to the Main Gate.
After you get off: Leave Nagoyajo Station by exit 7, which was built to imitate the castle's Korai gate, and follow the moat for about 5 minutes to the East Gate ticket window.