Overview
Toyotomi Hideyoshi built the original in 1583 as the largest castle in Japan; the Tokugawa destroyed it in 1615 and rebuilt on the same site, raising the ground level and the walls with it. Some blocks in the inner walls weigh over a hundred tonnes and were barged from Seto Inland Sea quarries. The 1931 tower was paid for by public subscription in six months, which says something about what the city thought of it.
Highlights
Walk the outer moat and the Ōte-mon approach before going in; the scale of the stonework is what nothing else in Japan matches. Inside, the museum is conventional but the eighth-floor view over the park is good. The park’s plum grove flowers in February, a month before the crowds arrive for cherry blossom.