Kakegawa Castle

Kakegawa, Japan, Japan

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Kakegawa Castle is a hirayama-style Japanese castle in the city of Kakegawa, Shizuoka Prefecture, originally built in the late 15th century (around 1513) under the orders of the Asahina clan and the Imagawa lords to control the Totomi region and protect the strategic Tokaidō highway that linked Kyoto and Edo.

Over the centuries it was held by various powerful families, including the Asahina, Imagawa, Yamauchi, and finally the Tokugawa clan after the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, and served as the seat of the lords of Kakegawa Domain for much of the Edo period. The original keep was destroyed by the Ansei Earthquake of 1854 and later abandoned after the Meiji Restoration, but in 1994 Kakegawa Castle became the first castle in Japan to have its main tower recreated in authentic wooden construction using traditional methods, making it a rare example of a historically accurate wooden donjon in modern times.

Inside the reconstructed tower are displays on castle history and period rooms, while next to it stands the Ninomaru Palace, built in 1855 and one of only about four surviving feudal-era castle palaces in Japan, designated an Important Cultural Property and open for visitors to see the former residence and offices of the domain lord.