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Kitakyushu is a port and industrial city at the northern tip of Kyushu in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, facing Shimonoseki across the Kanmon Strait. It is famous for Kokura Castle, the restored harbor of Mojiko Retro, the wisteria tunnels of Kawachi Fujien and the Yahata steelworks, now a World Heritage Site.
The city was formed in 1963 by merging five cities, Moji, Kokura, Wakamatsu, Yahata and Tobata, around the old castle town of Kokura. Moji grew rich as a trading port and the railway gateway to Kyushu, while the state-run steelworks that opened at Yahata in 1901 made the area the cradle of Japan's heavy industry. Today, with about 900,000 people, it is the second-largest city on Kyushu after Fukuoka.
Start at Kokura Castle, then spend a day in Moji, walking under the strait to Honshu and back. In late April and May book ahead for the wisteria at Kawachi Fujien. Ride up Mount Sarakura for the night view, and hike the limestone grasslands of Hiraodai.
Kokura Castle stands in Kokura Kita-ku, Kitakyushu, on a site first fortified by the Mōri clan in 1569. Hosokawa Tadaoki built a great castle here from 1602, and its rough-stacked stone walls survive. The keep burned in 1837 and the castle in 1866; the keep was rebuilt in 1959.
Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art sits on a hill in Tobata-ku, Kitakyushu, in a 1974 building by Arata Isozaki whose two jutting galleries earned it the nickname of the binoculars on the hill. Its collection runs from Impressionism to contemporary art, with works by Monet and Degas.
Imperial Steel Works began making iron in 1901 at Yahata in Kitakyushu, and by 1913 it produced 85 percent of Japan's steel. Three of its Meiji-era buildings in the city, including the former head office, joined a World Heritage Site in 2015 and can be seen from a viewing area.
Kitakyushu Museum of Natural History and Human History, called Inochi no Tabi, opened in Yahatahigashi-ku, Kitakyushu, on 3 November 2002 on former steelworks land. Its Earth Mall shows life-size dinosaur skeletons, including a Tyrannosaurus, and its history halls trace trade across East Asia.
Mojiko Retro is the old port district of Moji-ku in Kitakyushu, where buildings from its days as a trading port were restored from 1988 and opened with hotels and shops in 1995. Highlights include the former Moji Mitsui Club, where Albert Einstein stayed in 1922, and the strait views.
Mojiko Station is the northern terminus of the Kagoshima Main Line in Moji-ku, Kitakyushu, and its Neo-Renaissance building of 1914 is an Important Cultural Property. Until the Kanmon rail tunnel opened in 1942, it was the gateway to Kyushu, with ferries across the strait to Shimonoseki.
Mekari Shrine stands at the narrowest point of the Kanmon Strait in Moji-ku, Kitakyushu, beneath the Kanmon Bridge. Said to date back to the legendary Empress Jingū, its main hall was rebuilt in 1767. On lunar New Year's morning, priests wade into the sea at low tide to cut wakame for the gods.
Kanmon Pedestrian Tunnel runs under the Kanmon Strait from Moji-ku in Kitakyushu to Shimonoseki, below the road tunnel opened in 1958. Walkers cover its 780 meters in about 15 minutes, free of charge, crossing the prefectural border marked on the floor 58 meters under the sea.
Kawachi Fujien is a private wisteria garden in Yahatahigashi-ku, Kitakyushu, opened in 1977, with 22 kinds of wisteria, some more than 100 years old. Its two wisteria tunnels, 80 and 110 meters long, bloom in spring, when tickets must be booked ahead. It reopens in autumn for its 700 maples.
Hiraodai is a karst plateau of about 12 square km in Kokura Minami-ku, Kitakyushu, and nearby towns, ranked among the three great karsts of Japan. White limestone boulders dot its grasslands, which are burned each spring to keep them open, and visitors can wade through the Senbutsu limestone cave.
Mount Sarakura is a 622-meter peak in Yahatahigashi-ku, Kitakyushu, in the Kitakyushu Quasi-National Park. A cable car and a slope car climb to the summit, whose deck has a 200-degree view of the city's lights, named one of the New Three Major Night Views of Japan in 2003.
Wakato Bridge is a red suspension bridge across Dōkai Bay in Kitakyushu, linking the Wakamatsu and Tobata wards. Opened on 26 September 1962 with a 367-meter main span, it was then the longest suspension bridge in East Asia and was named an Important Cultural Property in 2022.
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