Aizu · Aizu-WakamatsuNo.582★★★Open in map →

Tsuruga Castle

historyThe classic — done right

A keep of five storeys at the centre of Aizu-Wakamatsu, roofed in red tile and set on Edo-period stone. The inside was rebuilt as a museum of the Aizu domain and the war that ended it, with a lookout floor on top.

FromKoriyama Station
~1 hr 5 minJR rapid, then town loop bus
Get off atAizu-Wakamatsu Station (JR Ban'etsu West Line)
From there
Tsuruga Castle

Directions ↗

Where it is

20 more notes in Fukushima · open the map →

What to look for — in walking order

Rinkaku tea house, Tsuruga Castlejeienne / CC BY 3.0

Kitademaru outworkthe stone bastion and moat you cross first, coming in from the bus stop
The red-tiled keepwhite walls under tile the colour of rust, seen whole from the main bailey
The exhibition floorsarmour of successive lords, a digital then-and-now map of the castle town, and a wall display following the siege
The top-floor lookoutan open gallery over the Aizu basin and the grid of the old castle town
Rinkaku tea housea small tea room in the main bailey, returned to its original place after the castle came down

How to actually get there

Koriyama Station → Aizu-Wakamatsu Station (JR Ban'etsu West Line, rapid service).
Aizu-Wakamatsu Station → Tsurugajo-iriguchi (town loop bus).
Enter through the Kitademaru outwork and go up the keep floor by floor.
Come down for the Rinkaku tea house, then follow the moat line back to the bus stop.

JR Ban'etsu West Line from Koriyama: Koriyama Station →(JR Ban'etsu West Line, rapid service, about 1 hr 5 min)→ Aizu-Wakamatsu Station. Koriyama is the Tohoku Shinkansen stop for Aizu, so this is the standard way in from Tokyo. West of Koriyama the line is rural and departures are spaced out, so look up your train before you set off.
Return from Aizu-Wakamatsu Station: The same line back to Koriyama, then the Shinkansen. Evening departures thin out early by city standards, so check the last one when you arrive rather than when you leave. The town loop bus also stops running well before the trains do, which is the easier thing to get caught by.

Directions from my location (Google Maps) ↗

About the place

The castle occupies the middle of the city, wrapped in moats and in stone walls that carry more history than anything standing on them. The designated historic site runs to about 23 hectares, taking in the main bailey, the second and part of the third, and the north and west outworks. Above the base rises a keep of five storeys in the layered-tower form, white-walled and roofed in red tile instead of grey. Red tile is the Aizu answer to a snow-country winter, and the roof carries it again after a long spell of grey. Seen from across the moat, the building reads differently from any other keep in the country.

How to enjoy it

The keep opens at 8:30 and stops admitting visitors at 16:30, so a late-afternoon arrival can find the door closed on it. The hour after opening is the one worth having: the exhibition floors are built to be read in sequence and they take time. Leave the grounds for afterwards — the outworks and the moat line are the part most visitors cross without looking at.

Background & history

Aizu held for the shogunate, and when the Boshin War reached the domain the castle was besieged and finally gave up its gates. The new government ordered the buildings down, and by 1874 the keep had gone, leaving the stone base bare. A concrete reconstruction of the exterior was raised in 1965, and in 2011 the roof was returned to the red tile the Edo-period castle had worn. A tea house called Rinkaku, carried off the site when the castle fell, was later moved back to the spot it had stood on in the main bailey.

Before you go

Cash: Entry to the keep is 410 yen for adults and 150 yen for primary and junior-high pupils, and a combined ticket with the Rinkaku tea house is sold as well. IC cards work at Aizu-Wakamatsu Station; carry cash for the bus and for the castle counter.
Good to know: Aizu is deep-snow country and the Ban'etsu West Line runs through it, so heavy weather or engineering work can suspend trains or put replacement buses on. Check service information on the day. The keep stops admitting visitors in the late afternoon, and the grounds have little shelter, which tells in snow and in high summer alike.
Another way: From Tokyo without the train: a highway bus runs from Busta Shinjuku to Aizu-Wakamatsu Station in about three and three-quarter hours.
After you get off: From the front of Aizu-Wakamatsu Station take the town loop bus — Haikara-san, or Akabee going round the other way — and get off at Tsurugajo-iriguchi. Both run about every thirty minutes, and the timetable puts the ride at around twenty-five minutes. You come out beside the moat on the north side and walk in through the Kitademaru outwork.