Tokyo · Landmarks

Best Castle & Palace in Tokyo

9 places, each checked by our team.

• Hachioji Castle Ruins 八王子城跡Motohachioji / Hachioji — The mountainside ruins of a great Hojo-clan castle that fell in a single bloody day in 1590. Restored stone walls and a reconstructed gate and…
• Imperial Palace East Gardens 皇居東御苑Marunouchi / Chiyoda — The free-entry former core of Edo Castle: colossal stone walls, moats, guardhouses and the bare foundations of the donjon that once made this the…
• Imperial Palace Grounds Public Tour 皇居一般参観Marunouchi / Chiyoda — The free guided walk inside the Imperial Palace grounds, the only way most visitors get past the moats: Fujimi-yagura turret, the vast plaza before…
• Kokyo Gaien National Garden 皇居外苑Marunouchi / Chiyoda — The broad pine-dotted plaza and moats in front of the Imperial Palace, once the outer grounds of Edo Castle, with free guided tours.
• Nijubashi Bridge (Imperial Palace) 二重橋Marunouchi / Chiyoda — Tokyo's most iconic royal postcard: two stone-and-iron bridges stacked in perspective over the moat, with the white Fushimi-yagura turret behind,…
• Sakuradamon Gate 外桜田門Kasumigaseki / Chiyoda — A massive 17th-century Edo Castle gate on the palace moat, where the shogunate's chief minister Ii Naosuke was assassinated in the snow in 1860, an…
• State Guest House, Akasaka Palace 迎賓館赤坂離宮Akasaka / Yotsuya — Japan's only neo-Baroque palace and a National Treasure: a gleaming 1909 granite facade, gilded state rooms and a fountain garden where presidents…
• Takiyama Castle Ruins 滝山城跡（都立滝山公園）Hachioji — Hilltop earthwork ruins of a Hojo clan castle in Hachioji, a National Historic Site and one of Japan's 'Continued Top 100 Castles'.
• Tayasumon and Shimizumon Gates 田安門・清水門Kudan / Kitanomaru — The two great surviving gates of Edo Castle's northern Kitanomaru enclosure: Tayasumon, the oldest standing structure of the castle, now the gateway…