Kakegawa Castle in Kakegawa, Shizuoka prefecture, was my first castle after completing the mission to see the original 12 castles in Japan. I was expecting a castle facade with museum interior. The typical, I feel like, for reconstructions that I had seen so many times before. I was pleasantly mistaken. It was, according to their information, the first castle to be reconstructed with wood.

Kakegawa History

Kakegawa was built around 1600 like nearly all of the castles. I like to joke that they sent carrier pigeons to all the lords. “Build a castle, NOW!”.  However it happened, still completely amazes me thousands of castles were made about the same time.

An earthquake destroyed much of the Kakegawa castle in 1854, including the main keep. The main keep is what determines if it’s “original” or not.  However, the residence, Ni-no-Maru Goten (二の丸御殿), survived!  This is actually the real reason I went.  I’ve been told there are four remaining palaces. I’m still on the search for validating that fact. But I figure someone that went through the Japanese school system and loves castles as much as me is a good start!  This makes the palace a important cultural asset of Japan and one of the very few remaining.

Kakegawa Castle

As I mentioned, Kakegawa Castle donjon, or keep, is completely rebuilt in wood per the original design.  The first undertaking of its kind since after the war.  They finished it in April of 1994. It is number 42 on the Stamp Rally Race for the 100 Finest Japanese Castles.  The stamp is located in the residence. Don’t miss it!

Inside the palace you can see a Taiko Drum.  There is also a 太鼓櫓, Taiko Watch Tower (is the only way I know how to translate it) that is representative of how they use to announce the time during olden days.

If you recall Maruoka Castle having a supernatural self–defense mechanism, Kakegawa did as well.  Legend has it that a mist appeared from one of the wells while it was being attacked, masking its existence.  Since then, it has the nickname of 雲霧城 or Cloud Castle.

Hours and Admission

The Hours of Operation vary depending on the time of year so be on the look out for that.  Pretty standard for Japan.  As the Land of the Rising sun, she tends to have super early summer hours and it gets dark very early in the winter.  From February to October hours are 9am-5pm, November to January is 9am-4.30pm.

The Admission Fee is a 410 yen for adults and 150 for children. This gets you into the Castle, the Ni-no-maru Palace as well as a small Museum.

Getting here

A “local” stop on the Tokai Shinkansen line, the castle is a short walk from the Kakegawa Station.