Type: Flat Land
Build in: 1609
Class: reconstructed

Imagawa Ujichika built the original castle at Nagoya around 1525. Oda Nobuhide took it from Imagawa Ujitoyo in 1532, but later abandoned it.

In 1610, Tokugawa Ieyasu ordered the various daimyo to help with the building of a new castle on the site. This new castle was to become the new capital of the existing Owari Province. The source for many of the building materials for the new castle was from the smaller Kiyosu Castle, including Kiyosu castle's tenshu, which was located in the existing provincial capital of Kiyosu. Nagoya castle's reconstruction was completed in 1612.

During the Edo period, Nagoya Castle was the center of one of the most important castle towns in Japan―Nagoya-juku―and it included the most important stops along the Minoji, which linked the Tokaido with the Nakasendo.


Nagoya Castle in 1933
Until the Meiji Era, the castle was the home of the Owari Tokugawa clan of the Tokugawa family. It was destroyed by fire during World War II, but the donjon has been rebuilt.

During World War II, the castle was used as the district army headquarters and as a POW camp. During the bombing of Japan, the castle was burnt down in a USAF air raid on May 14, 1945. Due to the destruction caused by the air raid, most of the castle's artifacts were destroyed. Many of the paintings inside, however, survived and have been preserved.