Wakayama Castle

History

In 1585, under the orders of his older brother Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Toyotomi Hidenaga established Wakayama Castle to help rule over the Kii area. When the castle was finished, Hidenaga had made Yamato Koriyama Castle his home base and stationed Kuwayama Shigeharu here in his place.

Asano Yoshinaga was stationed at Wakayama Castle after the Battle of Sekigahara. In 1619, Tokugawa Ieyasu's 10th child Yorinobu became lord of the castle. From that point until the Meiji Restoration the castle was ruled by successive Tokugawa lords.

Even after the Meiji Restoration, the beautiful main keep was kept intact and designated a National Treasure. Unfortunately, it burned to the ground during bombings in 1945. Wakayama Castle together with Himeji Castle and Iyo-Matsuyama Castle are called the Three Great Flatland Mountain Castles.

Visit Notes

I put off going to this castle for a long while, but after visiting I really think that most castle books don't give it justice. The amount of stone walls and baileys that remain are impressive. Even though the main keep and connected buildings are reconstructed, the complex keep style (renritsushiki) that completely encloses the main keep courtyard is one of only a few that you can see like this. The castle also has two original gates, a beautifully reconstructed covered bridge, and you can see all the different types of stone walls depending on when they were built. There is also an original bell tower yagura, the kitchen yagura from the honmaru palace and a samurai home in the town. I highly recommend you take the time to walk the grounds and enjoy this great castle.

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Gallery

main keep, Ninomon, and Ninomon Yagura
Okaguchi gate
Main keep and connected yagura
Main keep
main keep
Approaching the main keep
Ninomon Gate (Kusunoki Gate)
Inside the Main Keep compound
Inui Yagura
Main keep bailey.
Ninomon Yagura
Uzumimon Gate (buried gate)
foundation of the Daidokoro Yagura
Rock chutes
Okaguchi Gate
Rear side of the Okaguchi Gate
wall connecting to the Okaguchi Gate
Otemon Gate and Ichinohashi Bridge
Back side of the Otemon Gate
Oimawashi Gate
Oimawashi Gate
Ohashiroka
Ohashiroka Bridge
Inside the Ohashiroka Bridge
a high stone wall
East moat near the Oteguchi Gate
Stone walls of the Akazumon Gate ruins
Stone walls of the former Nakamon Gate.
Stone steps of the Okura Bailey.
Stone steps of the Okuru Bailey
Stone walls of the South Bailey
Stone walls
Stone walls near the Tsurunomon Gate ruins
high stone wall foundation of a yagura
dry moat
Stone walls of the South Nakamon entrance
stone walls and steps
map

Castle Profile
English Name	Wakayama Castle
Japanese Name	和歌山城
Alternate Names	Takegaki-jo, Torafusu-jo
Founder	Toyotomi Hidenaga
Year Founded	1585
Castle Type	Hilltop
Castle Condition	Reconstructed main keep
Designations	Top 100 Castles, has Important Cultural Properties, National Historic Site
Historical Period	Edo Period
Main Keep Structure	3 levels, 3 stories
Year Reconstructed	1958 (concrete)
Artifacts	Okaguchi Gate
Features	main keep, gates, turrets, bridges, water moats, stone walls, walls
Visitor Information
Access	Wakayama Station (Nankai Line, JR Hanwa Line); 15 min bus to Koenmae bus stop, or walk 20 mins
Visitor Information	400 yen; open 9-5:30pm; closed 12/29-12/31
Time Required	120 mins
Website	http://www.wakayamakanko.com/eng/sightseeing/history1.html
Location	Wakayama City, Wakayama Prefecture
Coordinates	34° 13' 39.40" N, 135° 10' 16.93" E
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Admin
Added to Jcastle	2005
Admin Year Visited	2012
Admin Visits	March 17, 2012
Friends of JCastle
Malcolm Fairman Photography - Wakayama Castle

3.75

(24 votes)

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Anonymous user #1

2 months ago

Score 0 You

Besides the Okaguchi Gate, which is the other original gate?

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RaymondWDaimyo

3 months ago

Score 0

I visited this castle again last month after previously visiting it in 2012. In past visits to Wakayama Castle, I had insufficiently researched and under-appreciated this castle. Wakayama Castle can be deceptively simple as many visitors tended to visit only parts of the castles and be impressed by some of its high stone walls but underwhelmed by the reconstructed concrete castle keep (despite its decent museum and collection of samurai armour.) Furinkazan mentioned in his comment below about taking more time to properly appreciate this hirayamajiro on his second visit. Well, I did exactly that on my fifth visit to this castle, spending 6 hours in and around the castle.

The two hills where the reconstructed castle keep is located along with the site of the former honmaru palace are pretty much encased in ishigaki (stone walls), but unlike Marugame Castle, some of the stone walls are obscured by trees, so it is not readily visible from a distance. At certain places, a castle fan will notice the two distinctive styles of stone wall construction next to each other, nozura-zumi style from the pre-1600 Toyotomi time and the later more tight-fitting stones of the uchikomihagi style from post-1600, when Asano finished building Wakayama Castle.

In addition to the large amount of ishigaki, there are also over 2,000 kokuins or stonemason’s seals on some parts of the stone walls scattered all over the castle indicating which lord had contributed to building the castle. One easy cluster of kokuins to spot is around the Okaguchi Gate.

Not shown on the castle profile photos here and missed by me on my previous visits are the ruins of two water gates on the east side of the castle.

As Furinkazan mentioned, there is the Ōmura Nagayamon, a “long gate” building once owned by a middle-ranked samurai. The nagayamon is an extant building from the Edo Period. Also, around 100 metres from the Ōmura Nagayamon is the site of a rock quarry which was used for constructing and repairing Wakayama Castle’s stone walls. Several holes made in preparation for splitting rocks can be seen on one of the rocky outcrops there.

As always, there are changes to castle sites if one visits them multiple times over many years. In the past, I have been able to walk freely around the perimeter of the castle keep, but there are now ropes blocking access to the back part of the castle keep, so you can no longer get to the Uzimon nor look up at the Daitoro Yagura from the outside as shown in some of the photos on this profile.

Wakayama Castle certainly deserves the accolade of being ranked as one of the Top Three Hirayamajiro (a castle with both flatland and mountaintop baileys) in Japan. If you visit this castle, do more than just make a beeline for the reconstructed castle keep at the top of the hill. Take your time and walk around all the baileys of this castle, noting its many defensive features such as the sites of where some turrets, hoardings, and gates had once stood, admire the different styles of stone wall construction, and perhaps look for some stonemason seals.

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EricShogun

3 months ago

Score 0

6hrs! Kokuin! Oh my. I think I need to revisit this one....

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RaymondWDaimyo

2 months ago

Score 1

@Eric. You can literally spend a whole day at this castle if you go back for a slow revisit. There are kokuins all over the place. If you do go for a revisit, make sure you drop by the Wakayama Prefectural Museum. There is a detailed model of Tedori Castle inside this museum. I have also posted a comment about this on the Tedori Castle profile.

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FurinkazanHatamoto

5 months ago

Score 1

I visited this site, for a second time, on 07/12/2022. I did a more profound visit than in 2010 and appreciated it more. The Jieitai(self defense force of Japan), were removing shrubs and grasses from the ishigaki. To the south-east of the castle, there is a relocated nagayamon of the Ômura residence.

I also recommend to visit the history museum to the north-west of the castle. There is a video of the castle during it's heyday.

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SnoworionGunshi

81 months ago

Score 0

Visited on 9 September 2016. Visited too late in the day to fully take the time to appreciate the castle or walk along the reconstructed covered bridge. Nonetheless worth a re-visit.

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Kiddus i2003Gunshi

97 months ago

Score 0

Good display inside of the reconstruction of this castle.

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PhibbyfanAshigaru

139 months ago

Score 0

I visited this castle today and was surprised at how nice it was! Outside it looks great but the museum inside has so many nice artifacts. I heard that these were not all there previously due to the rennovations so maybe those who went earlier would want to return.

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A22cricketAshigaru

146 months ago

Score 0

Nice, Like Osaka Jo, looks great from the outside. Grounds are a nice park.

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RaymondWDaimyo

154 months ago

Score 0

The reconstructed castle keep is fairly average and the museum is pretty decent. The four stars is mainly for its ishigaki, historical importance, and gardens.

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FurinkazanHatamoto

154 months ago

Score 0

I visited this castle today and thereafter i went to Kishiwada. The grounds of this one are beautiful. You may visit the garden for free and this is really rewarding. Actually the outer walls of the tenshu are in renovation(scaffolds), which mean you cannot take the picture which appears when you look at this castle on this site. Still you can take some nice pictures from lower baileys because trees are hiding the scaffolds. The top of the tenshu is still visible. The collection in the castle is really worthfull, but the castle is a concrete one.

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RaymondWDaimyo

180 months ago

Score 0

Visited this castle on the same day that I went to Himeji Castle. I guess it suffered a little in comparison, but it is still a nice castle to visit. It has a decent museum and a great panoramic view of Wakayama City from the top of the castle. You can also walk inside the completely covered walls which is sort of like parts of the western walls at Himeji Castle. Wakayama Castle is about a 20 minute walk from JR Wakayama Station. You can also catch a bus from the station which stops right outside the castle.

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