Northwest Nagasaki · HiradoNo.748★★Open in map →
Hirado Castle Town
— The port where the Dutch ran their Japan factory
An island port at the northwest tip of Kyushu, joined to the mainland by a road bridge. The Dutch traded here before Nagasaki, and the town still carries the evidence — a warehouse on the water, a church standing over temple roofs, a keep on the headland.
- FromSasebo Station
- ~2 hLocal train, then bus
- Get off atHirado Sanbashi bus stop (Saihi Bus)
- On foot
- Hirado Castle Town
The sweet spot
Hirado is thoroughly documented and well signposted, so it is not a secret. Distance is what keeps it off most routes: roughly two hours from Sasebo by local train and bus, which pushes it out of a day trip built around Nagasaki city. The compensation is that the two halves of its history — the trading post and the mission — stand within a ten-minute walk of one another.
Where it is
20 more notes in Nagasaki · open the map →What to look for — in walking order
- Hirado Dutch Trading Posta reconstructed stone warehouse on the harbour, standing on the site of the original factory
- Saiwaibashi bridgethe stone arch known locally as the Dutch Bridge, linking the harbour to the castle side
- Hirado Castle keepa headland keep with a top-floor gallery over the Hirado Strait and the bridge
- The Kagamigawa-cho slopethe climb where Komyoji and Zuiunji line up beneath the parish church
- Matsura Historical Museumthe former residence of the domain lords, holding their armour, scrolls and papers
How to actually get there
- Sasebo Station → Tabira-Hiradoguchi Station (Matsuura Railway Nishi-Kyushu Line).
- Tabira-Hiradoguchi → Hirado Sanbashi (Saihi bus across the Hirado Bridge).
- Hirado Sanbashi → Dutch Trading Post → Saiwaibashi → Hirado Castle keep (walk, under a kilometre).
- Back north through Kagamigawa-cho for the church-and-temple view and the Matsura Historical Museum.
- Matsuura Railway, then a bus across the bridge
- Sasebo Station to Tabira-Hiradoguchi Station on the Matsuura Railway Nishi-Kyushu Line, which the operator bills as the westernmost station in Japan. From there a Saihi bus crosses the Hirado Bridge to Hirado Sanbashi, the terminal on the harbour. Allow about two hours in total; the railway is a single-track local line and departures are spaced out.
- Returning to Sasebo
- Buses run back from Hirado Sanbashi to Tabira-Hiradoguchi, where the Matsuura Railway returns to Sasebo. Both legs finish early by city standards, so settle your return before you start the climb to the keep rather than after.
About the place
Hirado is a small island town wrapped around a harbour, with a strait on one side and steep ground behind. The castle keep sits on a headland above the water, and from its top floor the strait, the bridge and the roofs of the town resolve into a single picture. Below it the streets are narrow and tilted. Two of them carry the history. One is the harbour front, where a reconstructed stone warehouse stands on the site of the Dutch factory. The other is the slope in Kagamigawa-cho, where the parish church rises behind the tiled roofs of Komyoji and Zuiunji. The whole district lies inside Saikai National Park.
How to enjoy it
Start at the keep while the strait is still bright, then come down for the harbour front and the bridge, which take an hour between them. Save the Kagamigawa-cho slope for after the museum, so the walk finishes on the view rather than passing through it. Half a day covers the loop at a walking pace, and the museum's tea house is the natural place to stop.
Background & history
The Dutch East India Company opened its Japan factory at Hirado in 1609, under a permit from Tokugawa Ieyasu, and built a stone warehouse on the harbour front. In 1641 the shogunate ordered the whole operation moved to Dejima in Nagasaki, and Hirado's foreign trade ended with it. The Matsura lords, who held the domain throughout, rebuilt their castle on the headland in the early eighteenth century; the keep standing there now is a modern reconstruction. Their nineteenth-century residence opened as the Matsura Historical Museum in 1955.
Before you go
- Cash
- The harbour front, the bridge and the slopes cost nothing to walk. The castle keep, the trading post and the Matsura Historical Museum each charge their own admission, so carry cash as well as a card.
- Before you go
- The keep and the museum keep daytime hours and shut over the turn of the year. The Kagamigawa-cho slope is a public street and open at any hour, but it is steep, and there is little lighting once the shops close.
- Another way
- By car, the island is reached on National Route 204 from the Nishi-Kyushu Expressway, and the castle is a few minutes from the Hirado Bridge. Buses also run to Hirado directly from Sasebo without the railway leg.
- After you get off
- From Hirado Sanbashi the castle is under a kilometre on foot, level along the harbour and then uphill at the end. The trading post and the Saiwaibashi bridge are both on that walk.