Kōchi Castle, Japanese castle in Marunouchi, Kōchi, Japan
Kōchi Castle is a hirayama-style castle on Otakayama hill in central Kōchi. Its keep is a four-tier, six-story wooden tower 18.5 m high, with a top-floor railing and curved gables, set on a stone base. A long white wall with a tiled roof and small windows runs along the stone walls, and the Ōtemon gate has a dark upper facade with white horizontal bands and heavy wooden pillars.
Yamauchi Kazutoyo began construction in 1601 after receiving Tosa province from Tokugawa Ieyasu following the Battle of Sekigahara. A fire destroyed much of the compound in 1727, but rebuilding followed the original plans.
The castle is also called Taka-jō, or Hawk Castle, because the colour of its tiles and walls was likened to hawk feathers. The Honmaru Palace, now Kaitokukan, has a transom carved by Takechi Jinshichi and white walls that replaced gold-leaf ones after the 1727 fire. Bronze statues of Yamauchi Kazutoyo, his wife Chiyo and Itagaki Taisuke stand in the grounds.
The compound opens daily and sits on a hill, so visitors must climb stairs and steep paths. The view from the upper floor reaches across the city and works well for photographs.
Kōchi Castle is the only Japanese castle where both the keep and the honmaru palace survive; the keep was rebuilt in 1747 after the 1727 fire. The palace's transom carvings are by Takeuchi Jinshichi, and the honmaru also holds the Nandokura storehouse.
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