chugokuokayama
Okayama
Okayama is the capital of Okayama Prefecture, in the Chugoku region of western Honshu, about forty-five minutes from Osaka by Shinkansen, known for Korakuen, one of the three great gardens of Japan, and its black castle.
- Prefecture
- Okayama
- Region
- Chugoku
- Journeys
- The Custom Tour of Japan
overview
A lord's garden on a river island, with the black castle borrowed for its view.
Okayama was the castle town of the Ikeda lords, who ruled the province of Bizen for more than two and a half centuries. In 1687 the second lord, Ikeda Tsunamasa, began a garden on the island in the Asahi River opposite his castle, and it was completed in 1700. Korakuen, the garden of pleasure after, is counted with Kenroku-en in Kanazawa and Kairaku-en in Mito as one of the three great gardens of Japan.
The city grew prosperous on the rice and cotton of the Okayama plain. Its castle, black-walled and known as Crow Castle, stands across the river from the garden, and the streets around it have a fine prefectural museum, a museum of the Ikeda family treasures and an unusual museum of the ancient Orient. Okayama is known throughout Japan for its fruit: white peaches, Muscat grapes grown under glass, and the purple Pione, given as gifts in wooden boxes.
Okayama is also one of the best placed cities in western Japan. Kurashiki is fifteen minutes away, the art islands of Naoshima an hour, Shikoku across the Seto Ohashi bridge, and the shrines of Izumo and Matsue on the Sea of Japan coast at the end of the line through the mountains. In the hills to the east, potters still fire Bizen ware, and the swordsmiths of Osafune still forge blades, in the old manner.
see and do
What to see in Okayama
Korakuen
A strolling garden of about thirteen hectares, completed in 1700, with broad lawns, a pond with islands, tea houses, a stream running through the grass, a plantation of tea and a field of rice. The black keep of Okayama Castle rises over the trees as its borrowed view.
Okayama Castle
Built in 1597 by Ukita Hideie, its black lacquered boards gave it the name Crow Castle. The keep was lost in 1945 and rebuilt in 1966; the stone walls and one corner turret are original, and the keep looks down on Korakuen across the river.
The Hayashibara Museum of Art
A museum in the outer grounds of the castle with the collection of the Ikeda lords: armour, swords, Noh costumes, lacquer and painted screens.
The Okayama Orient Museum
A museum of the ancient Near East, from Mesopotamia to Persia, with glass, bronzes and ceramics in a building of quiet light.
Kibitsu Shrine
A shrine on the Kibi plain west of the city, its main hall of 1425 a National Treasure in a style found nowhere else, joined to its other halls by a covered corridor some 360 metres long. The legend of Momotaro, the peach boy, began here.
Bizen and Imbe
In the town of Imbe, forty minutes east, potters fire Bizen ware, one of the Six Ancient Kilns of Japan: unglazed, wood-fired for days, its colours made by flame and ash. Chimneys of brick rise over the kilns along the streets.
The Bizen Osafune Japanese Sword Museum
In Setouchi, east of the city, a museum of Bizen swords in the old sword-making village of Osafune, where smiths, polishers and scabbard makers can be watched at work.
The Shizutani School
A school founded in 1670 by Ikeda Mitsumasa for the children of commoners, the first of its kind in Japan, its lecture hall of 1701 roofed in Bizen tiles and a National Treasure, in a quiet valley.
Bitchu Matsuyama Castle
In Takahashi, an hour north, the highest of the twelve surviving original castle keeps of Japan, set on a mountain at about 430 metres, often seen above a sea of morning mist.
Yumeji Art Museum
A museum of Takehisa Yumeji, the painter and designer born in Okayama Prefecture, whose figures of willowy women defined the romantic style of the Taisho era.
experiences
The best of Okayama
Korakuen at its quietest
A walk through Korakuen with a garden specialist, then tea in one of its pavilions, with the castle across the river and the lawns nearly to yourselves.
A potter's kiln in Bizen
A morning in Imbe with a Bizen potter, at the wheel and beside the kiln, learning how days of wood fire give the unglazed clay its marks of ash and flame.
The fruit of Okayama
A tasting of the prefecture's white peaches, Muscat and Pione grapes, grown with great care and chosen fruit by fruit, at an orchard or a fruit merchant in the city.
The swordsmiths
An hour with the smiths of Osafune, watching the steel folded and hammered, and the polishers who give a blade its last edge.
plan your visit
Okayama on a journey through Japan
- How long to stay
- One night is enough for Korakuen, the castle and Kurashiki; two let you add Bizen, Kibitsu Shrine or a day on Naoshima.
- Getting there
- By Shinkansen from Shin-Osaka in about forty-five minutes, from Kyoto in about an hour, from Hiroshima in about forty minutes and from Tokyo in about three hours fifteen. Okayama Airport has flights from Tokyo Haneda of about an hour twenty.
- Pairs well with
- Okayama is the junction of western Japan: Kurashiki and Naoshima are close at hand, the Yakumo line runs north to Matsue and Izumo, the Marine Liner crosses to Takamatsu, and Himeji and Hiroshima are each half an hour or so along the Shinkansen.KurashikiNaoshima and the Seto Inland SeaMatsueIzumoHimejiHiroshimaKotohira and Takamatsu
journeys
Okayama on a private journey
We shape a journey to Okayama as a Custom Tour of Japan: created around your party alone, on your dates, with a Tour Director beside you.
questions
Okayama: questions answered
Is Korakuen worth visiting?
Yes. It is one of the three great gardens of Japan, with broad lawns, a pond, tea houses and the black castle as its backdrop, and one of the most open and graceful gardens of its period.
How do you get to Okayama?
By Shinkansen, about forty-five minutes from Shin-Osaka, an hour from Kyoto and three hours fifteen from Tokyo.
How long do you need in Okayama?
Half a day sees Korakuen and the castle; a night lets you add Kurashiki, and two allow Bizen or Naoshima.
What are the three great gardens of Japan?
Korakuen in Okayama, Kenroku-en in Kanazawa and Kairaku-en in Mito, all laid out by feudal lords in the Edo period.
Can you go from Okayama to Naoshima?
Yes. A train to Uno takes about an hour, and the ferry across to Naoshima about twenty minutes.
What is Okayama known for?
Korakuen garden, its black castle, Bizen pottery, Japanese swords, the legend of Momotaro, and its white peaches and grapes.
Can Okayama be part of a private tour of Japan?
Yes. The Custom Tour of Japan is created around your party alone, on your dates, with a Tour Director beside you, and it can include Okayama. For independent travel, the Expert Japan Itinerary plans every day for you.
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More in Chugoku
Okayama, planned for you.
Tell us when you would like to travel and what draws you to Okayama. We will answer with a journey shaped around it: one of our tours, a journey of The Private Collection, or a Custom Tour of Japan created around your party alone.