Nagoya Castle

愛知県

Tokugawa Ieyasu's great castle built by national labor — golden dolphins glittering atop the symbol of Nagoya

Founded

1610

Type

Castle

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地下鉄市役所駅徒歩5分

1-1 Honmaru, Naka Ward, Nagoya City, Aichi

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Info

Castle

Founded 1610

416 years

Overview

Nagoya Castle (1610), built by Tokugawa Ieyasu, features a keep crowned with golden shachihoko — Nagoya's iconic symbol. The Honmaru Palace, reconstructed in 2018, displays magnificent Kano school paintings. The keep was rebuilt in 1959 after WWII. As the Owari Tokugawa seat, the castle now attracts over 1.5 million visitors annually.

Origins

In 1609, anticipating conflict with the Toyotomi in Osaka and seeking to replace the flood-prone Kiyosu — and thus move the entire castle town in the 'Kiyosu koshi' — Tokugawa Ieyasu chose Nagoya as the residence of his ninth son Yoshinao for the Owari domain. Beginning in 1610, a shogunal public-wo…

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Related Figures
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慶長15年（1610年）、徳川家康が天下普請として諸大名に命じて築城した。金の鯱鉾は徳川の権威の象徴であり、家康が天下統一後の新たな政治拠点として整備した城郭である。

Oda Nobunaga

Revolutionary of Tenka Fubu

Age 76 at founding (posthumous)

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The site of Nagoya Castle was once occupied by Nagoya-jo (Nagoya Castle of the Sengoku era), where Nobunaga spent his boyhood. His father Nobuhide held this castle, and Nobunaga grew up here — a strategic importance that Ieyasu recognized when he built his grand castle on the same ground.

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Visiting Information

Hours

9:00 AM–4:30 PM (last entry to Honmaru Palace and the Treasures Hall 4:00 PM). Closed December 29–31 and January 1. Note: the main keep is currently closed pending wooden reconstruction.

Admission

Adults ¥500; Nagoya City senior residents (with senior ID) ¥100; junior high age and under free.

As of 2026-07-17. Subject to change.

Also Worth Visiting

名

Nagoya Toshogu

Built by Owari's first lord Yoshinao for his father Ieyasu — a Momoyama masterpiece with an Important Cultural Property karamon gate

Nichiren temple relocated in the 1612 Kiyosu-goshi — the 1724 fire that created Shikemichi also gave birth to Nagoya's oldest shopping street here