Kawagoe Castle

川越城Saitama

Historic area

What makes this place special?

At a Glance

Kawagoe Castle is a castle site on the edge of the Musashino plateau in Kawagoe, Saitama, and the closest castle to Tokyo that visitors can enter. Most of it is gone. What survives is part of the main hall, the Honmaru Goten, built in 1848 and designated a prefectural Tangible Cultural Property. The hill where the Fujimi turret stood, which served as the castle's keep, still carries two small shrines.

The castle dates to 1457, when the Uesugi clan had it built under the Ōta family. In 1545 and 1546 it withstood a siege by a far larger army in the Night Battle of Kawagoe, counted among Japan's three great night battles. In the Edo period it was the seat of the Kawagoe Domain, whose lords often held senior shogunate posts, and the castle town became known as Little Edo.