Last Updated: Jun 9, 2025

Japan’s Twelve Original Castles

The OG Defensive Dozen

This story was originally published on donnykimball.com and has been syndicated here on Medium.

The mention of Japan’s twelve surviving original castles has come up a number of times now over the years. Given the repeated frequency, it’s high time that there finally be a standalone feature on this lasting dozen of medieval fortresses, in the same vein as this article on Japan’s historical periods. At the end of the day, the ability to link out to a reference like Wikipedia does come in quite handy, but why send readers elsewhere when they can stay on this domain?

For those who aren’t aware, know that as Japan entered modernity in the Meiji period (1868–1912), almost all of the country’s castles were dismantled at the behest of the new government. Of the ones that survived this imperial decree, a few more — like Hiroshima Castle — were lost to the ravages of World War II. Tragically, this means that only twelve of the former fortresses are still remaining.

In the following sections, there will be a brief overview of each of the twelve castles that survived to the modern era. To make things simple, these will be ordered from north to south, starting with Hirosaki Castle in Aomori and then going down to the ones in Shikoku. Given that they are a much more authentic visit than any of the modern, ferro-concrete reconstructions…