Kawagoe Castle

Kawagoe Castle is a hirayama-style castle (built on a low hill in a plain) located in Kawagoe City, Saitama Prefecture, built in Chōroku 1 (1457) by the father and son Ōta Dōshin and Ōta Dōkan, and is one of the famous castles of the Kanto region. As the political center of Kawagoe, a historic castle town known as 'Koedo' (Little Edo), it played an important role throughout the Edo period.

The reason Kawagoe Castle is counted among the 'Seven Famous Castles of Kanto' lies in its strategic and political importance. As a key strategic point for the northern defense of Edo (Tokyo), the Tokugawa shogunate stationed powerful fudai and shinpan daimyo at Kawagoe. In particular, powerful daimyo such as the Matsudaira clan, Matsudaira Nobutsuna, and the Akimoto clan served as castle lords, and until the mid-Edo period it was also called the 'castle of the rōjū (senior councillors)', an important stronghold.

Currently, the only major surviving building at Kawagoe Castle is the Honmaru Goten (Honmaru Palace). Built in Kaei 1 (1848), this palace is one of the few valuable surviving examples of palace architecture among extant early-modern castles, and its interiors, including the great hall, the karō's waiting room, and the entrance, can be viewed. As a building that conveys to the present day the dignity and way of life of late-Edo daimyo residences, it has become an important center for historical tourism in Saitama Prefecture.

The 'kura-zukuri townscape' (warehouse-style townscape) of the Kawagoe castle town is a streetscape where merchant houses built in kura-zukuri style lined up after the Great Kawagoe Fire of Meiji 26 (1893). As a townscape that retains the look of Edo, it is designated as an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings. The 'Toki no Kane' (Bell of Time) and the kura-zukuri townscape are symbols of Kawagoe tourism, and the area has become one of the leading tourist destinations in the Kanto region, visited by several million people each year.