Okayama travel guide

Top 10 sights in Okayama

Ranked by Wikipedia language editions — proven fame.

1. 

   1© by Reggaeman · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Okayama Castle

   A castle whose keep was black-boarded, hence the local name of crow castle. The original of 1597 burned in 1945 and the concrete replacement of 1966 was refitted in 2022; a bridge crosses the river to Kōrakuen.

   TiqetsKlook
2. 

   2© 663highland · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Kōraku-en

   One of the three great gardens of Japan, laid out for the lord of Okayama between 1687 and 1700, and unusual for its broad lawns — most daimyo gardens use moss and gravel. The castle across the river is deliberately framed as borrowed scenery, and summer evenings are lit.

   TiqetsKlook
3. 

   3© 663highland · CC BY 2.5

   Ohara Museum of Art

   The first museum in Japan to show Western art permanently, opened in 1930 at Kurashiki by the mill owner Ōhara Magosaburō from paintings his friend Kojima Torajirō bought in Europe. El Greco's Annunciation is the centrepiece; the Greek-temple front is the emblem of the Bikan quarter.

   TiqetsKlook
4. 

   4© Reggaeman · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Kibitsu Shrine

   The first shrine of former Bitchū province, whose National Treasure main hall of 1425 is built in a double-roofed style found nowhere else. A covered corridor runs 360 metres down the hillside, and the shrine is tied to the Ura demon legend behind the Momotarō story.

   TiqetsKlook
5. 

   5© by Reggaeman · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Takamatsu Castle

   The castle in Bitchū province that Toyotomi Hideyoshi took in 1582 by damming a river and flooding the ground around it, one of the most famous sieges in Japanese history. Nobunaga's assassination reached Hideyoshi here; earthworks and the dam line survive.

   TiqetsKlook
6. 

   6© by Reggaeman · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Ki Castle

   An ancient kōgoishi fortress on a ridge at Sōja, built in the seventh century in a Korean-influenced style with 2.8 kilometres of wall. It is a National Historic Site since 1986 and is identified in local legend with the demon Ura's stronghold.

   TiqetsKlook
7. 

   7© 663highland · CC BY 2.5

   Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art

   The prefectural art museum, holding work by artists connected to Okayama and a substantial collection relating to Sesshū Tōyō, the fifteenth-century ink painter born in this province. It stands in the museum quarter near Kōraku-en.

   TiqetsKlook
8. 

   8© 663highland · CC BY 2.5

   Okayama Prefectural Museum

   The prefectural museum, beside Kōraku-en, covering the region from Kofun-period grave goods through the Bizen sword-smiths to the Edo domain. Its Bizen ware and the Kibi region's archaeology are the core.

   TiqetsKlook
9. 

   9

   Kibitsuhiko Shrine

   The first shrine of former Bizen province, dedicated to Kibitsuhiko-no-mikoto, who is said to have pacified the Kibi region. Its axis is set so that the sun on the summer solstice rises directly in line with the main gate, which is why it is called the shrine of the sun.

   TiqetsKlook
10. 

    10© 663highland · CC BY-SA 4.0

    Okayama Orient Museum

    A municipal museum of ancient Near Eastern, Roman provincial, Byzantine, Sassanian and Islamic art, holding about five thousand objects — an unexpected collection for a Japanese provincial city, given by a local family. It is in the cultural quarter with the prefectural museums.

    TiqetsKlook

Popular tickets & tours in Okayama

Live products and prices are provided directly by Klook.

KlookOpen Okayama activitiesBrowse tickets & toursKKdayOpen Okayama activitiesBrowse tickets & tours

Trending now

Based on 2025 Wikipedia pageviews — popular places beyond the top 10.

1. 

   1© 663highland · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Yumeji Art Museum

   A museum devoted to Takehisa Yumeji, the illustrator born in this prefecture whose wistful pictures of women defined Taishō-era graphic style. It is split between a main building in Okayama and an annexe at his birthplace in Setouchi.

   TiqetsKlook
2. 

   2

   Hayashibara Museum of Art

   A private museum at Marunouchi holding the collection of the Ikeda family, lords of Okayama domain — armour, swords, Noh costumes and painting — together with East Asian art. It stands just outside the castle's inner moat.

   TiqetsKlook
3. 

   3

   Tsukuriyama Ancient Burial Mound

   A keyhole-shaped kofun in northern Okayama, 350 metres long and built in the early fifth century, the fourth largest in Japan. Its size is the measure of how powerful the Kibi polity was before Yamato absorbed it, and visitors can walk up onto the mound.

   TiqetsKlook
4. 

   4

   Inryō-ji

   A Buddhist temple in Okayama city that has served as a local place of worship over a long period, with old stone monuments standing in its grounds.

   TiqetsKlook
5. 

   5© Mutsumi TOYOTA · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Handayama Botanical Garden

   A botanical garden on the slope of Handayama in northern Okayama, terraced with plum and cherry trees so that the city is visible below. About 3,200 kinds of plant are grown, and the reservoir at the top belongs to the city waterworks.

   TiqetsKlook
6. 

   6© Reggaeman · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Kameyama Castle

   The site of a Sengoku-period hill castle east of Okayama, also known as Numa Castle, where Ukita Naoie based himself before moving to Okayama. Stone footings and the layout of its baileys survive as a city historic site.

   TiqetsKlook
7. 

   7

   Bitchū Kokubun-ji Temple

   A Shingon temple at Sōja that continues the provincial temple founded by imperial decree in the Nara period for Bitchū. Its five-storey pagoda, rebuilt in the late Edo period, stands among rice fields and is the emblem of the Kibi plain cycling route.

   TiqetsKlook
8. 

   8© by Reggaeman · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Fukuyama Castle (Sōja)

   A Nanboku-chō period mountain castle of Bitchū province at Kiyone in Sōja, where a garrison loyal to the Southern Court was destroyed in 1336. Its earthworks are on a hill above the plain, marked as a historic site.

   TiqetsKlook
9. 

   9

   Kōmori-zuka Burial Mound

   A late Kofun-period burial mound at Kanbayashi in Sōja, whose horizontal stone chamber is intact and can be entered, with a large sarcophagus of Ako stone inside. It stands beside the Bitchū provincial temple.

   TiqetsKlook
10. 

    10© Fjkelfeimvvn · CC BY 3.0

    Tsushima Site

    A Yayoi-period settlement site at Izumi in northern Okayama, where excavation found house floors and, more importantly, the paddy fields alongside them — direct evidence of how wet-rice farming took hold in this region. A museum stands on the site.

    TiqetsKlook