Japanese Castles Spotter’s Field Guide

A field guide to Japanese castles for adult history fans and travellers: how to read a castle keep, three kinds of site, the way in, stone walls and the people who built and ruled them, then 12 castles from Himeji, Matsumoto and Kumamoto to Hirosaki, Matsue and Kochi, a timeline and the open questions.

What’s inside:

- How to use the guide (check opening details with each castle before you go)

- Recognise it: a castle keep and three kinds of site (our own drawings)

- The way in: gates, turns and dead ends

- Stone walls and foundations

- The people: who built them, and who lived in them

- 12 castles, from Himeji, Matsumoto and Kumamoto to Hirosaki, Matsue and Kochi, each with facts from named sources and notes space

- Timeline

- Open questions: ten questions without one answer

- Checklist of the 12 castles

- Credits, licence and sources

Pages: 18 (including cover and credits). Sizes: A4 (210 × 297 mm) and US Letter (8.5 × 11 in), both PDFs included in one zip.

Printing: Print at 100% / actual size on A4 or US Letter. Inside pages use light backgrounds and print well in black and white; covers are dark, so start from page 2 to save ink.

Every fact is checked against named source pages from UNESCO, JNTO, the Japan Tourism Agency, the Matsumoto Castle website, the Kumamoto Castle website, the Osaka Castle Museum and the Nagoya Castle website (checked 3 Nov 2026), and the sources are listed on the pack’s credits page. Where the evidence gives no single answer, what each source says is shown with its source.

There are no photos in this pack: all drawings, puzzles and layouts are REALLYBYTE’s own work. Drawings are simplified impressions: not photographs, not reconstructions of any real castle, not to scale, and not copied from any site plan, map, guidebook, print, photo or book. Not affiliated with UNESCO, the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), the Japan Tourism Agency, Himeji Castle, Matsumoto Castle, Kumamoto Castle, the Osaka Castle Museum, Nagoya Castle, Matsumoto City, Kumamoto City, Nagoya City, Osaka City, the Japanese government, the UK government or any museum. Their names, and the names of the places they look after, are used only to identify the places and sources we quote.

Licence: personal use. Print as many copies as you need for yourself and your household. Please don’t resell, re-upload or share it publicly. For club, school or commercial use, please email info@reallybyte.com.

Made by REALLYBYTE, the team behind japanese-castles.forts.im. Questions: info@reallybyte.com

This is a digital download: no physical item will be shipped.