StartHere

Hi Welcome to the fascinating world of Japanese Castles!

When I started this site, the intention was to be the most comprehensive source for Japanese castle sin English, anywhere. Over 20 years of visiting castles and thanks to many contributions from readers, there is now so much content here that it might be difficult for the beginner to know where to start.

Search: If you're looking for a specific castle, try the search box at the top

Edo Period Castles: If your image of castles is Himeji Castle, Matsumoto Castle or Osaka Castle you could start with the castles of the Edo Period. They tend to be bigger castles, have great stone walls and possibly some other structures like turrets and gates to enjoy.

Top 100 Castles and Next 100 Castles The Japan Castle Foundation has a list of the Top 100 Most Famous castles and then they created a "continued" list with 100 more for fans to enjoy. These lists highlight at least one castle from each prefecture, so n matter where you are this is a good place to find your nearest famous or most interesting castle.

Top 100 Mountaintop Castles: The majority of true castles were actually built before the Edo Period and tend to be located on mountains and hills that surround different warlords territories or protect villages creating castle networks. Once you start down this slippery slope your choices for visiting castles are nearly endless. This list of the Top 100 Mountaintop Castles is here to help. This classification is not "official" but is from a book by well known castle experts and is an excellent resource to identify the best mountaintop castles around.

Once you've explored the lists above, you will probably have enough experience and expertise to branch out and make your own decisions of what you want to see. Make use of the castle data browser to narrow down your choices to see what's out there.

The Featured Articles page also has some great articles on topics related to castles or themed pages with collections of castles related to a theme.