9 November 2025
Takamatsu castle and Ritsurin garden
Touristing in the rain
Do you like photos of gardens? Do you like photos of castles? Do you like photos of castle gardens? If yes, then today is the day for you.
There are 2 things that bring people to Takamatsu, today I did both, in the rain.
Actually it was only rainy for about half of the garden visit, with no rain by the time I got to the castle, this was FORTUITOUS because there were very few other people to get in the way of my photos, at either location, on a Sunday. I think this is a miracle.
Both locations were nice enough, the garden is listed as one of the top 3 or 4 gardens in all of Japan, but this is very controversial. Let me elaborate -
"The top gardens in Japan are widely recognized as the Three Great Gardens, which include Kenroku-en (Kanazawa), Koraku-en (Okayama), and Kairaku-en (Mito). Other highly-regarded gardens include Ritsurin Park (Takamatsu)."
So you can see how Takamatsu is the poor cousin to the top 3, and while you are in Takamatsu, you will only find reference to the top 4.
The castle, well it is cheap to enter, but very small. I will explain more with a lot of pics.
I awoke to a lot of rain, as predicted correctly by the Japanese Bureau of Meteorology, who unlike the Australian equivalent still have a functioning website.
Very grey and rainy. Luckily a train did not come while I was standing here.
When I arrived at the garden I expected a huge crowd. I think this is everyone. It was very quiet. Entry is $5.
I think this is a museum of roof tiles?
I did the less popular northern loop first, while it was still raining. The path was quite muddy.
Dead. They look like the same ones in the lake at Ueno in Tokyo.
This is where the duck hunters operate from.
Not particularly colourful in the rain.
A lot of very big fish. They gathered in a number of places around the lake.
No entry unless you have a reservation at the cafe.
There are a lot of little lakes in the garden.
A small waterfall if you look closely.
There are multiple opportunities to fall off a bridge.
Note the profound lack of other people?
More cafes.
A redundant photo.
I like the little bits of fog.
You can climb up some slippery rock stairs for a higher view in a few places.
Very weird photo, the way the hedge is trimmed it looks like the photo cut off in the middle of the screen.
There is a tiny little red bridge.
Over to the castle now (entry $2), which is about 2km away with the entire journey between garden and castle under a covered shopping street. Here is an old bridge. Not sure if old.
I enjoyed the bridge.
More of the bridge from the castle annex.
There is a bit of a view of Takamatsu, but not a very good view.
The gardens are nice, the rocks are slippery, still not really any other people!
This gate was recently newly re constructed, again.
I seemed to take the wrong route and was getting further away from the castle.
Gate with a view. The moat is interesting, it is sea water, there are not many castles in Japan with a sea water moat.
Behold the tiny castle.
Now for some dark interior shots. You have to take your shoes off. It is wooden inside.
Here is the view from the top. Not much of a view.
And there is the sea, and a ferry, and a tiny bit more castle.
All the silly signs at the base of the pillars ruin every photo. One of them warns that if an early earthquake warning occurs, flee now in terror.
One last pic of tiny castle. That is too many pics today.