Urado Castle, Japanese castle in Urado, Japan

Urado Castle stands on a strategic hilltop overlooking the Pacific Ocean and Urado Bay, with stone walls marking its former military importance. The ruins reveal the typical layout of a Japanese mountain fortress with multiple defensive levels.

The fortress served as Motochika Chosokabe's residence until 1600, when his son Morichika lost control following the Battle of Sekigahara. This turning point ended the clan's rule in the area and reshaped the local power structure.

The hilltop now holds the Sakamoto Ryoma Memorial Museum and the桂浜荘 inn, built over the former main enclosure. The museum presents Ryoma, a Tosa native, while the castle site itself is marked by a stone monument and an information board beside the entrance to the tenshudai, where small shrines to Oyamazumi and Shirohachiman remain.

The ruins lie on Urado hill, reached by bus from central Kochi (Kagamimichi route to Katsurahama) and a short walk from the Ryoma Memorial Museum bus stop. Free parking is available in front of the museum and Katsurahama-so. Only part of the main enclosure's stone walls and three dry trenches near the secondary enclosure survive, so the remains are easy to miss.

The three dry moats (horikiri) cut into the ridge near the secondary enclosure are among the few surviving traces of the castle. Most of the site was destroyed when the Kokumin Shukusha Katsurahama-so and the Sakamoto Ryoma Memorial Museum were built on the main enclosure. A 1995 excavation found roof tiles of lower quality than those at Oko Castle, prompting the theory that Urado was a temporary base for the Korean campaigns.