Kakegawa

About Kakegawa

Few Japanese towns can show you a castle palace that actually survived the centuries, but Kakegawa can. Below its rebuilt wooden keep stands the Ninomaru Palace, a rare original Edo-period administrative hall, and around them the town still carries the rhythm of a post station on the old Tokaido road between Edo and Kyoto.

Kakegawa sits in western Shizuoka Prefecture, between Shizuoka city and Hamamatsu, and it is serious tea country. Green tea fields roll over the hills to the north, and on Mount Awagatake the trees are planted to spell out the character for tea. The surrounding area saw hard fighting in the Sengoku era, and the ruins of Takatenjin and Yokosuka castles recall the long struggle between the Takeda and Tokugawa clans.

A day here can mix history and gardens: the castle and its tea house in the morning, the owls and flower halls of Kakegawa Kachoen in the afternoon, and a walk over the Sayo no Nakayama pass on the old Tokaido for keen walkers. The Tokaido Shinkansen stops at Kakegawa, making it an easy break on a journey between Tokyo and Nagoya.