Obi Samurai District

Around the old castle ruins in Obi is an area of former samurai residences. Closest to the castle were the highest ranking samurai, moving down the ranks further away from the castle until you reach the old merchant district.

Being somewhat off the beaten track the area has retained many of the buildings and the basic layout of these former times and is registered as a Historic Preservation District of groups of Traditional Buildings. There are more than 100 of these districts scattered across Japan, and while some are in major tourist areas, many are not.

I've come across quite a few on my walks in the backcountry, and in my experience some of them are quite delightful, being non touristy and ungentrified. Links to many of them Ive visited can be found at this index over at Japanvisitor.

On this trip I was in a hurry to carry on with my pilgrimage, but recently I revisited the area and spent time exploring in the houses open to the public and can recommend it to visitors to Miyazaki

Obi Castle

On the 25th day of my first walk around Kyushu I started out by taking a train and backtracking a ways as I wanted to visit the castle at Obi.

It is not a well-known castle, nor very large, but it is surrounded by a well preserved samurai district and the stone walls are in good condition. The gate house was quite impressive also.

I'm not sure if it ever had a keep but there is a reconstruction of the daimyos "palace" and a museum displaying armour and weapons and such.

For more details on the castles history, access, entry fees etc please see a longer piece I wrote for Japanvisitor.