West Mikawa · OkazakiNo.1045★★Open in map →

Okazaki Castle

historyOff the trail — and worth it

A park on the hill in central Okazaki where Tokugawa Ieyasu was born. The tower is a modern rebuild with a digital exhibition inside, while the moats, the uncut stonework and a long river wall are what actually survives of the castle.

FromMeitetsu Nagoya Station
15-min walk from the stationMeitetsu, every train stops
Get off atHigashi-Okazaki Station (Meitetsu Nagoya Main Line)
From there
Okazaki Castle

Directions ↗

The sweet spot

Okazaki Castle is well known within Japan and signposted from the station, so it is not a discovery. What visitors from abroad tend to miss is that the concrete tower is the newest thing on the hill. Read the place as a castle site rather than a castle building, and the moats, the stonework and the river wall become the main event.

Where it is

27 more notes in Aichi · open the map →

What to look for — in walking order

Sugogawabata stone wallthe river wall traced by excavation, its angled bastions now cleared for viewing
The towera concrete rebuild, its floors given over to screens and a top-floor lookout
Tatsuki Shrinethe shrine on the castle grounds, named for the golden dragon of the birth legend
Ieyasu's birth wellthe well remembered as the source of the newborn Takechiyo's first bath
Mikawa Samurai Museum Ieyasukanthe park's history museum on Ieyasu and his Mikawa retainers, with armour to try on

How to actually get there

Meitetsu Nagoya → Higashi-Okazaki (Meitetsu Nagoya Main Line, every train stops).
Higashi-Okazaki Station → the park across the Oto river (walk about fifteen minutes).
River wall → the tower and Tatsuki Shrine → the birth well → the Ieyasukan museum.
Return the same way, or catch the bus from Kosei-cho back to the station.

Meitetsu main line to Higashi-Okazaki: Every service on the Meitetsu Nagoya Main Line calls at Higashi-Okazaki, from the fastest limited expresses down to the locals, so you can board at Meitetsu Nagoya without checking the train type. From the station it is about fifteen minutes on foot, north-west across the river, to the park. The same line runs south to Toyohashi, which is a Tokaido Shinkansen stop.
Return from Higashi-Okazaki Station: Cross back over the river to Higashi-Okazaki and take the main line north toward Nagoya or south toward Toyohashi. If you have stayed in the park until closing, the bus from Kosei-cho is the shorter way back to the platform. Services thin out late in the evening, so check the board before staying on for dinner in town.

Directions from my location (Google Maps) ↗

About the place

The castle sits on a low rise where the Oto river bends through central Okazaki, and the whole hill is now a public park. The tower is the obvious landmark, but the ground around it carries more of the original: dry moats, walls of rough uncut stone, and the outline of the old baileys. Along the river below, excavation traced a wall running about four hundred metres with three angled bastions built into its face, reported as the longest surviving stretch of castle wall in the country. Roughly eight hundred cherry trees fill the park and the two riverbanks beside it.

How to enjoy it

The tower opens at 9:00 with last entry at 16:30, and it stays open through almost the whole year, so it fits around the park rather than the other way round. Come up from the river side first: the wall and the moats sit outside the ticket line, and seeing them before you climb makes the shape of the castle far easier to read. In late March and early April the cherry trees around the park and along both rivers are lit from 18:00 to 21:00.

Background & history

A fort went up on this hill in the 1450s, raised by Saigo Yoritsugu on what is now the inner bailey. The Matsudaira, later the Tokugawa, took it over, and in 1542 the boy Takechiyo — Tokugawa Ieyasu — was born inside it. After the Tokugawa left for the east, the castle passed through the Tanaka, Honda, Mizuno and Matsudaira houses in turn. The abolition order of 1873 brought the tower and its buildings down, and the one standing today was put up in 1959.

Before you go

Cash: The park itself is free to walk through. The tower charges 300 yen for adults and 150 yen for children at its own door, and a combined ticket with the Ieyasukan museum beside it is 650 yen for adults and 320 yen for children. Both are paid at the buildings rather than at any park gate.
Good to know: The tower is closed on 29, 30 and 31 December. Everything else here is open ground with no shelter — the moats, the baileys and the river wall are all outdoors — and the cherry-blossom fortnight in spring brings heavy crowds and evening lighting.
Another way: From JR Okazaki Station, on the Tokaido main line, take a bus bound for Kosei-cho and get off there, leaving about five minutes on foot. The Aichi Loop Line's Naka-Okazaki Station is another fifteen-minute walk in, on the Igagawa side where the cherry trees follow the water.
After you get off: From Higashi-Okazaki Station head north-west, cross the Oto river by the road bridge and keep going to the park, about fifteen minutes in all. Buses also leave the station via Kosei-cho, which leaves a five-minute walk at the far end.