This 400-Year-Old Impenetrable Japanese Castle That Survived a Samurai Siege Just Crumbled in an Earthquake

In 1877, a force rebelling against Emperor Meiji attacked Kumamoto Castle on Japan’s southern Kyushu island

Sonja Anderson | Daily Correspondent

August 3, 2026 3:55 p.m.

Share

Copy linkEmailSMSFacebookXRedditLinkedInBlueskyPrint

Add as preferred source

Last week, a 7.1-magnitude earthquake rocked Japan’s southern Kyushu island. The city Kumamoto bore the brunt of the assault. Officials say the quake caused an explosion at a shopping mall, toppled a factory chimney and damaged houses, reports Mari Yamaguchi for the Associated Press. The death toll stands at nearly three dozen people, and many more are injured or missing.

The quake also heavily damaged an important piece of Japanese heritage: Kumamoto Castle, a grand palace built more than 400 years ago and famously besieged by an army of rebellious samurai in the 19th century. During the recent earthquake, the stone walls that held back those thousands of warriors partially collapsed.

“It was really something,” says a bystander in a video posted by BBC News. “It didn’t fall down piece by piece, it came crashing down all at once. It really shocked me.”

Kumamoto Castle, completed by 1607, was commissioned by Katō Kiyomasa, a Japanese general who served under Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the chief imperial leader who unified Japan. Hideyoshi had died at the end of the 16th century, and rivals were fighting in the power vacuum. In Kyushu, where samurai lords were “jostling for power,” reported BBC News’ Mike MacEacheran in 2018, Kumamoto Castle’s defenses spanned nearly 250 acres and boasted 49 towers, 18 gatehouses and 29 gates, according to the castle’s official website.

It wasn’t until the late 19th century, though, that Kumamoto Castle’s fortifications were seriously tested. In 1877, a group of samurai, the Satsuma, rebelled against Emperor Meiji’s government. Led by Saigo Takamori, the rebels encountered Kumamoto—then an imperial stronghold—during their planned march to Tokyo.

Takamori’s forces struck the castle in February 1877, and their efforts drew thousands more rebel samurai, as historian Kallie Szczepanski wrote for Thought Co. in 2019. In time, there was an army of some 20,000 men attacking the castle. In early April, the emperor sent 45,000 reinforcement soldiers, and they stopped Takamori’s siege.

“The castle’s garrison held off attackers for approximately two months … without allowing a single person to enter,” Issei Kanada, who managed protection of cultural property at Kumamoto Castle Research Center, told BBC News in 2018. “The Satsuma Army was responsible for burning peoples’ homes and killing our ancestors in the fighting—and today people still have mixed feelings about this time. But what isn’t debated is the role the castle played: It proved its defensive capabilities in battle. And that’s very rare for a castle in Japan.”

Part of the stone wall of Kumamoto Castle collapses as 7.1 earthquake hits Japan

Watch on

Kumamoto Castle has been mortally damaged only in peacetime, by earthquakes. In 2016, a deadly 7.3-magnitude quake collapsed the castle’s turrets and walls, damaged its keep and dislodged roof tiles and ornaments, per BBC News. The castle’s long, expensive restoration after the 2016 quake was projected to take until 2052, reports the Art Newspaper’s Alex Wang.

“We are still investigating the extent of the damage, so it is too early to know how the restoration schedule will be affected,” Rintaro Mitsuyasu of the Kumamoto Castle General Office tells the Art Newspaper. “There is certainly a possibility that the completion date could be delayed, but at this stage we cannot estimate by how much.”

Sonja Anderson is a daily correspondent for Smithsonian magazine who covers art, archaeology and culture, from newly discovered artifacts to the latest art heists.