Kiyosu Castle

Kiyosu, Japan, Japan

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Kiyosu Castle is a historic Japanese castle in Kiyosu City, western Aichi Prefecture, best known as the early base of the Sengoku warlord Oda Nobunaga and as the starting point of his campaign that eventually led to the unification of Japan.

Originally built in the early 15th century as a strategic stronghold for the Owari region, the castle was captured by Nobunaga in 1555; he used it to launch his famous victory at the Battle of Okehazama in 1560 and later held the “Kiyosu Conference” there to decide his successor after his death in 1582, making it a key site in the rise of the Tokugawa shogunate’s founding era.

The original castle was largely demolished in 1610 so its materials could be used for Nagoya Castle, but a modern four‑story main keep with golden roof ornaments was rebuilt in 1989 on the site of Kiyosu Koen Park, and today it functions as a small museum with exhibits, costumes from period dramas, and displays about the Warring States period and Nobunaga’s conquests.

The castle grounds are easily accessible by a 15‑minute walk from either JR Kiyosu Station or Meitetsu Shin‑Kiyosu Station, and the surrounding park area with its stone walls and moat traces gives visitors a sense of the layout of the former castle town, which in the early Edo period was one of the larger and more prosperous castle towns in the region.