Hizen Nagoya Castle Ruins

Work started in 1591 and the castle was finished within months, built by daimyo who were each assigned a section. For a few years this headland on the Higashimatsuura Peninsula was one of the busiest places in Japan. Hideyoshi used it as the staging base for sending armies to Korea in 1592 and 1597, campaigns known in Japan as the Bunroku and Keicho wars, and he stayed here for a little over a year. The keep had five roofs and seven floors. Around it, some 160 daimyo are said to have set up camps on the surrounding hills; more than 150 camp sites have been identified, and 23 of them are part of the Special Historic Site along with the castle. After the war the castle was taken apart, probably early in the Edo period, and much of the stone went to build Karatsu Castle. What remains is a big, open hill of stone walls, some deliberately broken. The loop from the museum through the Sannomaru to the Honmaru takes 30 to 40 minutes. The museum, opened in 1993 and partly renewed in 2025, puts the war in a longer story of contact with the Korean Peninsula, including the Joseon embassies of the Edo period. Admission is free.