What to do and see in Saga, Kyushu-Okinawa: The Best Sights & Landmarks

This museum building is a faithful reconstruction of the Saga Castle main palace, built by the tenth domain lord Nabeshima Naomasa in 1838. It was rebuilt based on archaeological findings, old photographs, and diagrams from the Edo Period. Only one-third of the original complex has been restored, but it is still the largest scale wooden building restoration project in Japan, and the first restoration of a castle’s main palace. More than 700 tatami mats cover the floor of this museum, and in this vast space, many exhibits introducing Saga in the 19th century can be seen in the form of historical materials, footage and models. You will find that this museum is completely flat; this is because it was originally designed as a flat-structured building on one level in the Edo Period. Now, allow yourself to slip back in time to Saga during the Edo Period. Please enjoy your visit.

❶Enshrined Kami (Deity)：Yodohime-no-mikoto ❷Origin：year 564 ❸Divine Virtues：The kami of Yodohime Jinja Shrine has been widely worshiped as the kami of water, river and sea. It has also been worshiped as the “Hizen Ichi-no-miya” (the Shinto shrine with the highest shrine rank in the old province of Hizen, currently Saga and main part of Nagasaki prefectures) since the Medieval period. 247 ancient documents, called “Kawakami-jinja Komonjo” was designated as national important cultural property (an official title given to cultural propertie), and the whole shrine was designated as “Saga city landscape important structure” in 2013. 250 pieces of the ceiling pictures in the Haiden were painted as one of the memorial projects of the shrine’s 1450th anniversary ritual festival ❹Annual Major Rituals ： April 18 (Prayer for a bountiful harvest) November 18 (“Niiname-sai” Celebration and thanksgiving of the first fruits)