Kitsuki Castle Town

Kitsuki is one of the best-preserved castle towns in Japan, uniquely situated on a narrow plateau between the mouths of the Yasaka and Takayama rivers on the Kunisaki Peninsula in Oita Prefecture. The town's distinctive sandwiched layout features samurai residences on the northern and southern hilltops with a merchant quarter in the valley between them, a pattern found nowhere else in Japan. Visitors can walk through immaculately maintained samurai districts where whitewashed walls and thatched-roof gates line steep stone-paved slopes. Kitsuki Castle, originally built in 1394, sits on a hill at the eastern end of town with views across Beppu Bay. The town encourages visitors to rent kimono and stroll through the atmospheric streets, offering discounted entry to historic houses for those dressed in traditional attire.