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Kumamoto is the capital of Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan, famous for Kumamoto Castle, counted among the three premier castles in the country. Its top sights are the castle and Katō Shrine, the Suizen-ji Jōju-en garden, Lake Ezu, Fujisaki Hachimangū and Miyamoto Musashi's Reigandō cave.
Katō Kiyomasa became lord of half of Higo in 1588 and built the castle, greatly enlarging it from 1601 to 1607. The Hosokawa clan replaced his son in 1632, and Hosokawa Tadatoshi became patron of the swordsman Miyamoto Musashi, who wrote The Book of Five Rings here. In the 1877 Satsuma Rebellion the castle held out against a siege, though its keep burned.
Kumamoto has about 739,000 people and became a designated city in 2012, a year after the shinkansen linked it to Hakata. Earthquakes in April 2016 damaged the castle, whose main keep was restored by 2019, and the novelist Natsume Sōseki and the writer Lafcadio Hearn both lived here in the 1890s.
Kumamoto Castle is the hilltop fortress of Kumamoto on Kyushu, Japan, counted among the country's three premier castles. Katō Kiyomasa enlarged it from 1601 to 1607 into a complex of 49 turrets behind curved musha-gaeshi walls, and its keep, rebuilt in 1960, was restored again in 2019.
Katō Shrine is a Shinto shrine inside the grounds of Kumamoto Castle in Kumamoto, Japan, dedicated to Katō Kiyomasa, the lord who built the castle. It began as his mausoleum after his death in 1611, moved several times, and has stood at its present site in the castle since 1962.
Sakuranobaba Josaien is a visitor complex beside Kumamoto Castle in Kumamoto, Japan, free to enter except for its museum. Its 23 shops and restaurants sell food and goods from Kumamoto, and the Kumamoto Castle Museum Wakuwakuza presents the history and culture of the city and its castle.
Kumamoto Prefectural Museum of Art opened in 1976 within the precincts of Kumamoto Castle in Kumamoto, Japan. Its collection focuses on the art and crafts of Kumamoto Prefecture, adds works by Renoir and Rodin, and has a room of replicas of the decorated kofun burial mounds of the prefecture.
Suizen-ji Jōju-en is the Edo-period stroll garden of the Hosokawa lords in Kumamoto, Japan, begun in 1636 as a tea retreat by a spring-fed pond. Its man-made hill is said to model Mount Fuji, and it holds the Izumi Shrine, founded in 1878, and the Kokin-denju-no-ma teahouse, moved here in 1912.
Lake Ezu is a spring-fed lake in eastern Kumamoto, Japan, formed after Katō Kiyomasa built the Ezu embankment in the Keichō era, and split into upper and lower basins. Its water stays at 19 to 20°C all year, nurturing rare Suizenji-nori algae, and its banks offer walking paths and rowing boats.
Fujisaki Hachimangū is a Shinto shrine in Kumamoto, Japan, founded in 935 at an imperial request with a spirit brought from Iwashimizu Hachimangū. Its name recalls a legend that an envoy's wisteria whip took root here. Burned in the 1877 Satsuma Rebellion, it was rebuilt on its present site.
Mount Hanaoka Peace Pagoda crowns the 132 m Mount Hanaoka in Nishi-ku, Kumamoto, Japan. Begun in 1947 and finished in 1953 by Nipponzan-Myōhōji, the order of the monk Nichidatsu Fujii, it holds Buddha relics given by India's prime minister Nehru, and its hilltop looks out over the city.
Reigandō Cave is the cave behind Unganzen-ji temple at the western foot of Mount Kinpō in Kumamoto, Japan, where swordsman Miyamoto Musashi retreated from 1643 to write The Book of Five Rings. Stone statues of the 500 rakan, carved in the mid-Edo period, line the hill above the temple.
Musashizuka Park in Kita-ku, Kumamoto, Japan, holds the grave of swordsman Miyamoto Musashi, who died in 1645 and is said to have been buried in armour by the old Bungo road to watch over his lord's processions. Opened in 1989, it has a bronze statue of Musashi, a garden and a teahouse.
Honmyō-ji is a Nichiren Buddhist temple in Nishi-ku, Kumamoto, Japan, known for the Jōchibyō mausoleum of the castle builder Katō Kiyomasa. A cherry-lined approach passes 12 sub-temples to a steep flight of 176 stone steps lined with lanterns, and a further climb leads to a statue of Kiyomasa.
Natsume Sōseki Uchitsuboi Former Residence is the house in Kumamoto, Japan, where the novelist lived longest while teaching English in the city, about one year and eight months from 1898. Listed as a city historic site in 1978, it opened that year as a memorial hall with displays on Sōseki.
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