Kumamoto travel guide

Top 10 sights in Kumamoto

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1. 

   1© Birdman at Japanese Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Kumamoto Castle

   One of the three great castles of Japan, built by Katō Kiyomasa, whose curving musha-gaeshi stonework is its finest feature. The keep has reopened after earthquake repairs, and the elevated walkway that lets visitors see the restoration work itself is a striking piece of planning.

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2. 

   2© MK Products at Japanese Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Kumamoto Prefectural Museum of Art

   The Kumamoto Prefectural Museum of Art stands in the Ninomaru park inside the castle, so it follows naturally from a visit to the castle. Its reconstruction of a decorated tomb chamber is its distinctive display.

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3. 

   3© 663highland · CC BY 2.5

   Suizen-ji Jōju-en

   Suizenji Jōjuen is a stroll garden that reproduces the fifty-three stations of the Tōkaidō in miniature. The mound shaped like Mount Fuji is its defining image.

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4. 

   4© MilanoCollection · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Katō Shrine

   Katō Shrine honours Katō Kiyomasa, who built the castle, and stands inside the walls at the best point from which to look up at the keep.

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5. 

   5© Simasakon · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Daiji-ji Temple

   A Soto Zen temple in Minami-ku founded in 1278 by Kangan Giin, said to have been a son of the emperor Go-Toba, and one of the mother temples of Soto Zen in Kyushu. The founder's wooden portrait statue and the medieval documents are kept here.

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6. 

   6© hyolee2 · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Mifune Dinosaur Museum

   The Mifune Dinosaur Museum stands on the actual fossil beds of the Mifune Group in Kumamoto. With children in tow, half a day disappears in it.

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7. 

   7© MK Products · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Fujisaki Hachimangū

   Fujisaki Hachimangū is the tutelary shrine of Kumamoto, and the horse procession of its great September festival is the largest event in the city.

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8. 

   8© STA3816 · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Honmyō-ji Temple

   Honmyō-ji is the Nichiren temple holding the grave of Katō Kiyomasa, approached up a long and imposing flight of stone steps. From the top the city of Kumamoto opens out.

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9. 

   9© Siwamura · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Kitaoka Shrine

   A shrine in the west of Kumamoto founded in 934, its approach lined with camphor trees, two of them grown together and revered as a married pair. The Gion festival held here each summer is among the oldest in the city.

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10. 

    10© Simasakon · CC BY-SA 3.0

    Kumamoto City Zoological and Botanical Gardens

    A zoo and botanical garden of ten hectares in Higashi-ku, on the shore of the Ezu lake. It shut for most of two years after the 2016 earthquake and reopened area by area; the elephants, giraffes and the small Ferris wheel are the fixtures.

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1. 

   1© hyolee2 · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Takahashi Inari Shrine

   An Inari shrine counted among the three great Inari shrines of Japan. Its Hatsuuma festival in February draws several hundred thousand people, and the path up the hill runs under a continuous line of red gates.

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2. 

   2© Simasakon · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Uto Castle

   A flatland castle at Uto held by Konishi Yukinaga, the Christian general who commanded the first division in the invasions of Korea. He lost his head after Sekigahara and the castle was demolished to the ground; the excavated foundations have turned up quantities of imported European goods.

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3. 

   3© MK Products · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Kengun Shrine

   The oldest shrine in Kumamoto, traditionally founded in the sixth century, and one of the four shrines of the Aso group. The avenue of cedars up to it is the reason to walk rather than drive, and the autumn festival includes kagura dances several centuries old.

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4. 

   4© ハポニアラ · CC BY 4.0

   Kamao Kofun

   A round Kofun-period mound in Kumamoto whose stone chamber is painted inside with triangles and concentric circles in red, white and black. It is one of the decorated tombs that are peculiar to Kyushu and is a national historic site.

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5. 

   5© hyolee2 · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Tsukawara Kofun Cluster

   Some seventy burial mounds of the fourth to sixth centuries in Jonan, including keyhole, square and round forms together — which is why it is used to teach the sequence. It is preserved as a park with a small museum and is the most complete such group in Kyushu.

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