Ujo｜From White to Black: Driving from Himeji to Find a Jet-Black Castle in Okayama

After visiting Himeji Castle, keep driving east and you reach Okayama City — the two are close enough to put in the same day’s itinerary quite naturally. Besides Kōraku-en, one of Japan’s three great gardens, Okayama has a castle nicknamed “Ujō” (Crow Castle). I only meant to stop by, but the moment I walked out onto the plaza I knew it was worth a special trip.

Himeji Castle is called the “White Heron Castle” for its walls of a white so clean it almost glows. Okayama Castle is called “Ujō” — the crow — its jet-black walls the exact visual opposite of Himeji. Seeing the white one and then the black one on the same day, the contrast is so sharp it feels almost unreal.

Ujō is at its best from the outside — the black keep is wonderfully photogenic under a blue sky. Just twenty minutes on the plaza made the trip worth it. Inside there are historical artefacts of the Okayama domain, but the exhibits themselves don’t match the visual impact of the exterior.

The Kōraku-en + Ujō combination

Okayama Castle and Kōraku-en (one of Japan’s three great gardens) are right next to each other, a 3-minute walk apart, so they pair perfectly. Kōraku-en is a vast traditional Japanese garden you can wander for 1–2 hours — plum and cherry blossoms in spring, maples in autumn, and (captive) cranes in winter. Kōraku-en admission is ¥500 and Okayama Castle ¥400; a combined ticket for both is ¥800 (high-schoolers and younger free through 2027-03-31).

A Himeji + Okayama one-day itinerary

From Osaka: take the shinkansen to Himeji (about 30 min), tour Himeji Castle (2–3 hours) → shinkansen to Okayama (about 15 min) → Kōraku-en + Okayama Castle (2–3 hours) → back to Osaka (about 45 min). A JR Pass makes this excellent value, and you complete the “one white, one black” castle experience in a single day.

Getting there

Okayama Castle is about a 20-minute walk from Okayama Station, or take the Okayama Electric Tramway to Shiroshita stop (about 5 min, ¥160 (flat fare since Oct 2025)). A JR Pass covers the Sakura/Hikari shinkansen between Himeji and Okayama (Nozomi/Mizuho are excluded from the basic pass). Okayama tours and tickets can be booked via Klook.

The Story of This Place

First, the castle's own story. Okayama Castle was built by Ukita Hideie, one of the five regents (go-tairo) of the Toyotomi government. Around 1590 he began a major reconstruction, absorbing the older castle of his father Ukita Naoie, and after roughly eight years he completed this compound-watchtower keep of four tiers and six floors in 1597. Its most famous feature is that skin of black-lacquered wooden siding: the whole tower gleams so dark that people nicknamed it \"Ujo,\" the Crow Castle. Because it also used gold-leaf tiles and golden shachihoko ornaments, it earned a second, grander nickname, \"Kin-ujo,\" the Golden Crow Castle. The main channel of the Asahi River was deliberately drawn right up along the north-to-east side of the inner bailey, turning an entire river into a natural moat. After the Battle of Sekigahara, Kobayakawa Hideaki took the castle in 1600, died suddenly two years later, and thereafter it became the seat of the Ikeda clan for generations. Sadly, that original tower did not survive to our day: it burned down in the Okayama air raid of June 29, 1945, and the keep we see now is a reinforced-concrete reconstruction from 1966. What truly outlasted the fire are the Tsukimi Yagura (Moon-Viewing Turret) and the Nishinomaru Nishite Yagura, both designated Important Cultural Properties. Beside the castle lies Korakuen, a feudal-lord garden begun by Ikeda Tsunamasa in 1687 and completed over about fourteen years, counted among Japan's three great gardens. (For the record, whether the keep was modeled on Azuchi Castle or Osaka Castle has long been debated, with no settled conclusion.)

Now, an old tale of this land. As legend has it, long ago a demon-god named Ura, said to have flown in from a foreign country, made his stronghold at Kinojo (in present-day Soja) and terrorized the region, until the imperial court dispatched Kibitsuhiko-no-mikoto to subdue him. It is said that when the two clashed, Kibitsuhiko loosed two arrows at once; Ura struck one down, but the other pierced his left eye. Legend also tells of Ura's shapeshifting: he fled as a pheasant, so Kibitsuhiko became a hawk to chase him; he turned into a carp and slipped into the river, so the deity became a cormorant, caught him, and forced his surrender. According to the tale, after Ura was beheaded his severed head kept groaning even in death, so it was buried deep beneath the Kamadono of Kibitsu Shrine, where it moaned for thirteen years — later giving rise to the Narukama Shinji, the rite of divining fortune by the sound of a ringing cauldron, still performed at Kibitsu Shrine today. This whole Ura legend is regarded as the origin of Japan's beloved folktale Momotaro: Momotaro corresponds to Kibitsuhiko, and the ogre to Ura — which is why Okayama is called \"the town of Momotaro.\" (In fairness: this is a folk legend widely told across the Kibi region where the Crow Castle stands; its true stage is Kibitsu Shrine and Kinojo, not the castle keep itself, so it is shared here as local context.)

Once you know all this and stand on the spot, that jet-black Crow Castle — and the land of Momotaro behind it — both suddenly carry a little more weight of story.

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Okayama produce and food

Okayama is nicknamed “the Land of Sunshine” (for having the most clear days), and its farm produce is abundant. Fruit is Okayama’s pride: white peaches, intensely sweet and a top national brand; and Muscat of Alexandria grapes, eaten skin and all, with an intoxicating aroma. You’ll find them at the souvenir section of JR Okayama Station and at the farm stand beside Kōraku-en — in peak season a single peach can run ¥600–1,500. There’s also a large Takashimaya department store in front of the station, handy for shopping before catching your train.