Kokura｜A city where you can have fun Kokura Castle is curated like a paradise

If you have been to ancient Japanese cities such as Osaka Castle and Himeji Castle, most people went there to appreciate the beauty of the architecture and understand the historical context, but rules are meant to be broken, and Kokura Castle is more like an interactive playground. Here you can experience how heavy the stones were when porters built the city. You can play Yabusame (mounted archery) in the electronic interactive game, and the electronic display screen can help you put on ancient costumes and experience what it was like to be an ancient person. Then, the detailed puppets recreate the life of the people in ancient Kokura, the visits of foreign envoys, war meetings, and step by step, the curation brings us into the world of Kokura in those days. In fact, these exhibitions were reopened in 2019 after a long renovation lasting nine months. Facing the important strategic location of the Kanmon Strait, it was the Mori clan that first built the city. It was not until after the Battle of Sekigahara that Mori Katsunobu was defeated and his territory was confiscated, and the world was passed to the Hosokawa clan. Starting in 1602, Hosokawa Tadaoki gradually expanded and built Kokura Castle. In seven years, he built it into a castle that not only had strategic value but also served as the feudal lord's residence. The castle tower of Kokura Castle is actually quite unique, adopting the Nanban-style outer edge connected tower-type building. At first, there was only a triangular Iri-shaped hafu. Because the castle tower was burned down in a fire in 1837, elements such as the Tang hafu were added during the reconstruction in 1850, resulting in the Kokura Castle we see today. 📍Address: 3 Jonai, Kokurakita Ward, Kitakyushu, Fukuoka 803-0813 Japan 🚗 Take bus No. 27 or 28 to Kitakyushu City Hall and walk for three minutes. If you walk from Kokura Station, walk through the shopping street for about 20 minutes. #MarchGoodPlaces2025