At an old castle here in Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, an arriving visiting party is welcomed by a corps of musketeers firing a gun salute and a squad of armored warriors waving banners.

The guests in the Ozu Castle Stay Program can experience how Kato Sadayasu (1580-1623) entered the fortress as the inaugural lord of the Ozu feudal domain.

The lodgers have the option of wearing armor that carries the crest of the Kato clan as they enter the castle.

They are treated to a dinner of dishes made with local ingredients at one of the castle’s turrets, which have been designated as important cultural properties by the central government, and also enjoy an act of the traditional performing arts. 

The Ozu Castle Stay program, which allows a party of lodgers to book an entire castle in Ozu overnight for about 1 million yen ($6,900), was kick-started in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic in July 2020.

Castle stay programs such as the one in Ozu are drawing attention across Japan as a catalyst for attracting tourists well into the prospective aftermath of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Even pricier stay plans are on offer by castles that have started accepting lodgers.

The central government has also entered the picture by providing assistance to similar programs in hopes they will help enliven castle towns.

COMBINING PRESERVATION AND USE

The Ozu Castle Stay program is the brainchild of Value Management Co. The consulting firm, based in Osaka Prefecture, has been working to revive and repurpose historic buildings into accommodations, wedding halls and other facilities.

Value Management in 2018 signed a partnership agreement with the Ozu city government and other parties and procured capital from a fund, in which Iyo Bank and another party hold stakes, to start the program.

Apart from the castle stay, the company has also refurbished historical buildings that dot the castle town, such as samurai houses and traditional townhouses, into accommodations and has revived them as constituent parts of Nipponia Hotel Ozu Castle Town, a decentralized hotel complex.

“Castles in Japan used to be all about preservation,” said Jun Tarikino, president of Value Management. “You can, however, contribute to regional development by working with the private sector to combine preservation efforts with effective use.”

The Ozu Castle Stay program has been utilized by about 10 parties a year, with the average overnight spending totaling about 1.5 million yen, including expenses for other services.

Many inquiries are coming from overseas. Program officials are hoping there will be even more participants when the pandemic has ended. 

The accommodations outside the castle have been visited by more than 13,700 lodgers over two years.

Young local entrepreneurs have also opened shops in Ozu for marketing pottery of Tobe ware, a local specialty, and locally brewed beer, thereby creating new jobs in the community.

Hirado Castle, in the eponymous city in Nagasaki Prefecture, also opened itself as a permanent “castle stay” facility in April 2021.

The fortress offers a program called the Castle Stay Kaiju Yagura, which allows a party of lodgers to book the castle’s Kaiju Yagura watchtower, a two-storied reinforced concrete structure restored by the Hirado city government in 1977.

The guest room downstairs in the watchtower is a living room-cum-dining room designed in the so-called “Japanese modern” style. A bedroom upstairs is decorated with a wall painting by artist Takahide Komatsu.

The lodgers can also enjoy the use of a bathroom with glass facades that offers a sweeping view of the ocean beneath and the Hirado Ohashi bridge.

The basic overnight charge starts from 789,000 yen, including a dinner and a breakfast, for a party of two. A chauffeur-driven limousine car service is also available.

The castle stay program in Hirado is offered by Hyakusenrenma Inc., which is based in Miyagi Prefecture

The company operates a website for booking private lodging and is also directing and operating programs that allow lodgers to stay in old private houses.

Hyakusenrenma President Yasuhiro Kamiyama said he initially had plans for having accommodation furnishings included in the main keep of Kumamoto Castle, in the capital of Kumamoto Prefecture, when the fortress was being restored from the damage it had incurred during the Kumamoto Earthquakes of 2016.

He had to give up on the plan because foremost priority was placed on restoring what had been there previously. However, since he thought the plan itself was too good to toss out, he organized a hands-on event of the sort at Hirado Castle in 2017.

His company received a flood of inquiries from media outlets overseas when it began calling for would-be lodgers. More than 7,500 rushed to apply for the event, with non-Japanese accounting for more than half of the applicants.

Hyakusenrenma also worked with the tourism ministry and the city government of Shiroishi, Miyagi Prefecture, to organize a “castle stay” event in the main keep of Shiroishi Castle in 2019.

“I became convinced that castles will serve as a catalyst for attracting tourists from abroad,” Kamiyama said.

TOURISM AGENCY ENTERS PICTURE

The Japan Tourism Agency has also entered the picture.

Earlier this year, the JTA called for proposals for what it calls “programs for tourism-based community development using historical resources,” which allow up to 20 million yen of the costs to be covered by the central government.

Proposals were received from about 70 communities, with nine of these adopted in July.

“Castles represent sustainable treasures that help attract tourists from overseas,” said an official with the JTA’s Tourism Resources Division.

Apart from the latest set of programs, the JTA has also sent experts to, and organized seminars on, castle stay programs that use fortresses across Japan.

OPTIONAL GIFT FOR TAX DONATION

Other castles are planning to follow suit.

Marugame Castle, in the eponymous city in Kagawa Prefecture, will be offering castle stays to lodgers from fiscal 2024.

“We assume an overnight charge of 300,000 yen or so, with affluent non-Japanese lodgers in mind,” a city government official said. “We are hoping to revive the allure of this castle town.”

Fukuyama Castle, built exactly 400 years ago in the eponymous city in Hiroshima Prefecture, was also planning demonstration stays, on three occasions from October, ahead of a prospective start of a castle stay program of its own.

The city of Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture, offered a program for a “one-day lordship” of Himeji Castle as an optional gift for a donation of 30 million yen or more made in the central government’s “furusato nozei” (hometown tax) program. A well-heeled patron showed up to make a lump-sum payment late last year.

“The donor said the lordship experience was so good,” a Himeji city government official said. “We will continue to come up with more events that use Himeji Castle.”

The central government of Japan sets aside an annual budget of approximately 45 billion yen for the preservation of cultural properties, less than half the corresponding sum allocated in France.

Tarikino, the president of Value Management, said Japan has many historical resources that remain unpreserved and are left dilapidated and in obscurity.

“The momentum is finally increasing for actively using similar resources in passing them on for posterity, so they will not end up as pearls cast before swine,” Tarikino said.