Dominating the skyline, Kumamoto's robust castle is one of Japan's best, built in 1601–07 by daimyō Katō Kiyomasa, whose likeness is inescapable around the castle (look for the distinctive tall pointed hat). From 1632 it was the seat of the powerful Hosokawa clan.
Though a reconstruction, Kumamoto-jō is best known as the scene of the story of the last samurai. During the 1877 Satsuma Rebellion, rebels against the new imperial order held out for a 50-day siege here before the castle was burned, leaving the Meiji government to rule unfettered.
The castle's massive curved stone walls, 5.3km in circumference, are crammed with 13 photogenic buildings, turrets, keeps and the soaring black Tenshūkaku (main building, 29.5m tall), today a historical museum with 6th-storey lookouts. Next door, the 2008 reconstruction of the Honmaru Palace fairly gleams with fresh wood and gold leaf paintings, particularly in the Sho-kun-no-ma receiving room. Free castle info is offered in English; call to check availability.
Within the castle walls, the Kumamoto Prefectural Museum of Art has ancient Buddhist sculptures and modern paintings. Across the castle park, the museum's postmodern Chibajo Annexe , built in 1992 by the Spanish architects Elias Torres and José Antonio Martínez-Lapeña, is an architectural landmark.
