Free Walking Tour Hiroshima: Castle to Peace Park

Your Hiroshima Walking Tour, Eight Stops from Garden to Museum

1. 1

   Shukkeien Garden

   

   Shukkeien means “shrunken landscape”, and that is exactly what you walk through: about 40,000 square metres in which typical Japanese scenery appears in miniature around a single pond, the Takuei. Small pines grow on its islands, carp and turtles live in the water, and the arched Kokō-kyō bridge spans the middle.

   It is a stroll garden laid out as a circuit. You enter in the southwest and soon reach the Seifū-kan, a teahouse in sukiya style; from its shore you can watch the turtles. Walk on clockwise and you pass through a wooded section with the Chōzen-kyo, then a mountain landscape in the north with a rugged coastline, streams running into little bays and the Meigetsu-tei teahouse. In the east rises Mount Kifuku, where the bridge comes ashore, and in the southeast you find a tea garden, rice fields and, in the far corner, an herb garden.

   The story starts with the lords of Hiroshima Castle. In 1619 the daimyo Asano Nagaakira made the castle his residence, and the following year his retainer Ueda Sōko, a tea master, began building the garden as part of the lord's villa. Between 1783 and 1788 Asano Shigeakira had it reshaped by Shimizu Shichirouemon, a garden architect from Kyoto. In 1940 it passed to Hiroshima Prefecture.

   Admission is modest, which makes it an easy yes, especially if you like slow walks and water. Give it about 45 minutes. The Prefectural Art Museum adjoins the garden on its western side and has an entrance from the grounds, just 230 m and 3 minutes away.

   Hours

   Mar 16 – Sep 15: Daily 09:00–18:00 (last entry 17:30); Sep 16 – Mar 15: Daily 09:00–17:00 (last entry 16:30); closed Dec 29-31

   Price

   Garden admission: adult ¥350; university student ¥150; high-school age and younger free.

   Website

   shukkeien.jp ↗

   Location

   Shukkeien Garden on Google Maps ↗

2. 2

   Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum

   

   The museum opened in September 1968 and was completely renovated in 1996, which gave it its open, modern look. The building treats Shukkeien as its neighbour of honour: from the main hall you look straight out onto the garden's greenery, and in spring onto the cherry blossom.

   Its permanent collection holds more than 4,500 works on almost 20,000 square metres and four floors, shown in a four-year thematic rotation, so what hangs on the walls changes. The collection rests on four pillars: traditional Japanese painting known as nihonga, traditional Asian art objects, and art of the 1920s and of the 1930s. Look out for Salvador Dalí and Isamu Noguchi, and for artists from the region such as Ai Mitsu. The museum is also known for temporary exhibitions on current themes.

   The name to remember is Ikuo Hirayama (1930 to 2009). He was in Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, which makes him a hibakusha, a survivor of the bombing. He became famous for paintings of the Silk Road and of Buddhism, and also for depicting what the bomb did. Works by Okuda Gensō and Kodama Kibo hang here too, along with two large painted canvases of the shrines of Miyajima and Itsukushima.

   Worth it if Japanese painting interests you, or if you want to see a survivor's art before the Peace Park; the museum charges admission. Keep Noguchi's name in mind; he returns at the Cenotaph. From here it is 840 m, about 12 minutes, to the castle.

   Hours

   Tue–Sun 09:00–17:00 (last entry 16:30), Fri 09:00–19:00 (Apr–Sep open until 20:00), Mon closed

   Price

   510 JPY adult, 310 JPY university student, free for high school students and younger & seniors 65+

   Website

   hpam.jp ↗

   Location

   Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum on Google Maps ↗

3. 3

   Hiroshima Castle

   

   The keep you see today was rebuilt in 1958 as a replica of the original and now houses a museum of Hiroshima's history before the Second World War; other castle buildings have been reconstructed since. Locals also call it Carp Castle. Much of the original was taken down in the Meiji era, and what remained was largely destroyed by the bombing on 6 August 1945.

   Mōri Terumoto, one of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's council of Five Elders, built the castle between 1589 and 1599 on the delta of the Ōta River. There was no city yet; the area was simply called Gokamura, “five villages”. From 1591 Mōri ruled nine provinces from here, covering much of today's Shimane, Yamaguchi, Tottori, Okayama and Hiroshima Prefectures.

   The castle gave the city its name, because a grander one was wanted. “Hiro” came from Ōe no Hiromoto, an ancestor of the Mōri family, and “Shima” from Fukushima Motonaga, who helped choose the site. Another reading takes Hiroshima simply as “wide island”, after the large islands in the river delta.

   After the battle of Sekigahara in 1600 Mōri had to leave for Hagi, and Fukushima Masanori took over. The new Tokugawa shogunate allowed no castle building without permission from Edo, so when Fukushima repaired the castle after a flood in 1619, he was sent off to Kawanakajima. His successor was Asano Nagaakira, the lord whose tea master had just begun Shukkeien.

   Entry is free, which makes the keep's history museum an easy stop. Then walk 740 m, about 10 minutes, to the Hiroshima Museum of Art.

   Hours

   Apr–Sep: Daily 09:00–17:30 (last entry 17:00); Oct–Mar: Daily 09:00–16:30 (last entry 16:00)

   Price

   Free

   Website

   rijo-castle.jp ↗

   Location

   Hiroshima Castle on Google Maps ↗

4. 4

   Hiroshima Museum of Art

   

   This museum was born from a gesture of peace. When the Hiroshima Bank marked its hundredth anniversary, thirty years after the bombing, it wanted to give the city a symbol of peace and paid for both the building and the collection. A park in the city centre south of the castle was chosen, and the doors opened on 3 November 1978.

   The main building is a single-storey round structure with a central rotunda, around which four galleries are arranged. It sits in the middle of a rectangular garden; on the north side further galleries are linked to it by an underground passage, and on the south side you find a café, a museum shop and an auditorium.

   The collection covers the 19th and 20th centuries, with French painters at its core, many of them influenced by Japanese art, the movement known as Japonisme. A second focus is Japanese artists who absorbed Western art. The earliest paintings are by Eugène Delacroix, among them L'Arabe au tombeau from 1838 and Soldat à l'épée. Jean-François Millet and Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot represent the Barbizon School.

   This is the dearest ticket on the route, so go in if French painting is your thing and plan about an hour. If not, the round building and its setting are worth a look as you pass. The next leg, 740 m and about 10 minutes, takes you from art to 1945: the A-Bomb Dome.

   Hours

   Daily 09:00–17:00 (last entry 16:30); closed Mondays (except during special exhibitions/national holidays), New Year, and exhibition renewal periods

   Price

   2,500 JPY adult, 1,000 JPY high school/university student, 500 JPY elementary/junior high student

   Website

   hiroshima-museum.jp ↗

   Location

   Hiroshima Museum of Art on Google Maps ↗

5. 5

   A-Bomb Dome

   

   What stands here is a ruin kept on purpose. The building is permanently preserved in the state the bomb left it, as a reminder of what nuclear weapons do, and as a memorial to the more than 140,000 people killed. It belongs to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996.

   It began as something entirely different. The Czech architect Jan Letzel designed it with a distinctive dome on top; it was completed in April 1915 and opened to the public that August as an exhibition hall for the prefecture's products. Renamed in 1921 and again in 1933, when it became the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, it stood in the busy business district next to the Aioi Bridge and mostly hosted art and educational exhibitions.

   At 8:15 a.m. on 6 August 1945 the first atomic bomb ever used in war fell on Hiroshima, with a force of 15,000 tons of TNT. The city was chosen for its size and density, because conventional bombing had left it largely intact, and because no prisoner of war camp was known there. The Aioi Bridge was the aiming point, easy to recognise and close to the crowded centre. The bomb missed by 240 m and exploded over Shima Hospital; the blast centre lay 150 m horizontally and 600 m vertically from the Dome. The hall was among the few structures in the area that remained standing.

   The Dome is free and open around the clock, so you can take all the time you need. Then follow the path 310 m, about 4 minutes, to the Children's Peace Monument.

   Hours

   Open 24/7

   Price

   Free

   Website

   city.hiroshima.lg.jp ↗

   Location

   A-Bomb Dome on Google Maps ↗

6. 6

   Children's Peace Monument

   

   Look up to the top of the statue: a girl holds a wire crane high above her head. She is Sadako Sasaki, and around the monument you see thousands of folded paper cranes sent from all over the world, by children who want a world without nuclear war.

   Sadako died of leukemia on 25 October 1955, caused by the radiation of the bomb dropped ten years earlier. Japanese tradition says that whoever folds a thousand cranes is granted a wish, and hers was a world without nuclear weapons. The well-known version says she died just short of a thousand. An exhibit in the Peace Memorial Museum told it differently: by the end of August 1955 she had reached her goal and kept on folding. Her wish was not granted.

   The monument remembers her and the thousands of other children killed by the bomb. Schoolchildren across Japan, Sadako's classmates among them, raised the money for it. The artists Kazuo Kikuchi and Kiyoshi Ikebe designed it, and the statue, titled “Atomic Bomb Children”, was unveiled on 5 May 1958, Children's Day in Japan. The cause it stands for gained a new voice on 11 October 2024, when Nihon Hidankyo received the Nobel Peace Prize for its work towards a world free of nuclear weapons and for survivors' testimony.

   The monument is free and always open. From here it is only 150 m, about 2 minutes, to the Cenotaph for A-Bomb Victims.

   Hours

   Open 24/7

   Price

   Free

   Website

   hiroshimaforpeace.com ↗

   Location

   Children's Peace Monument on Google Maps ↗

7. 7

   Cenotaph for A-Bomb Victims

   

   The curved roof is shaped like an ancient clay house, a haniwa, meant to shelter the souls of the victims from rain and dew. In the stone chamber at its centre lies the register of everyone who died as a bomb survivor, Japanese or foreign. Names are added every year at the request of relatives; as of 6 August 2026 it held 353,639. The cenotaph sits on a straight line between the Peace Memorial Museum and the A-Bomb Dome, so stand in front of it and look through.

   Kenzō Tange designed it. The first choice had been a design by Isamu Noguchi, recommended by Tange himself: a huge arch facing the Dome with a large space underground. Opponents, among them Tange's own teacher Kishida Hideto, objected because Noguchi was Japanese American, and Tange reworked the design while keeping Noguchi's idea alive. It was unveiled on 6 August 1952, first in concrete, and rebuilt in granite in 1985.

   The inscription reads, roughly: “Please rest in peace, for we shall not repeat the error.” Professor Saika Tadayoshi, himself a survivor, wrote it at the request of Mayor Hamai Shinzō. Whose error? People argued from the start. In 1952 the mayor said it meant war itself, the ruin of humanity and civilisation; letters to the local paper demanded that it name the United States, and others replied that it was a vow of all humankind. That reading, with humanity as the subject, is the city's view today.

   Over the years the cenotaph has received many visitors who came here for the first time: in 1970 an American prisoner of war killed in the bombing was added to the register, in 1971 Emperor Shōwa and Empress Kōjun paid respects, in 2016 Barack Obama laid flowers as the first sitting US president to visit, and in 2023 the G7 leaders came together. It is free and always open.

   The last leg runs 370 m, about 5 minutes, to the Peace Memorial Museum, past the Flame of Peace.

   Hours

   Open 24/7

   Price

   Free

   Website

   soumu.go.jp ↗

   Location

   Cenotaph for A-Bomb Victims on Google Maps ↗

8. 8

   Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum

   

   Everything you have seen in the park comes together here. The museum opened in August 1955 and documents the atomic bombing through belongings left by victims, photographs and other material, alongside exhibits on Hiroshima before and after the bombing and on the nuclear age. Kenzō Tange, who also designed the Cenotaph, was the architect of the main building. Between 1955 and 2005, 53 million people came, over a million a year, and school groups from all over Japan make it their first destination in the city.

   A 1994 renovation split the museum into two sections. The East Wing told the history of Hiroshima before the bomb, how the weapon was developed and the decision to use it, how people lived during the war and after, and the efforts for peace since. It included a model of the destroyed city and letters between scientists and leaders of the time on atomic development and its expected results. The West Wing concentrated on the damage the bomb caused.

   The museum describes each object as carrying the grief, anger or pain of a real person, and says Hiroshima's deepest wish is the elimination of all nuclear weapons. Take that seriously when you plan: give yourself an hour and a half and some quiet time afterwards.

   The ticket is inexpensive, and younger visitors pay less or nothing. This is where the route ends.

   Hours

   Mar–Nov: Daily 07:30–19:00 (Aug open until 20:00 / Aug 5-6 until 21:00); Dec–Feb: Daily 07:30–18:00 (last entry 30 min before closing); closed Dec 30-31 and mid-Feb

   Price

   200 JPY adult, 100 JPY high school student / senior (65+), free for junior high school students and younger

   Website

   hpmmuseum.jp ↗

   Location

   Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum on Google Maps ↗

Shorter Ways to Walk Hiroshima

Not everyone has a full day. These three cuts keep the route's logic and let you pick the part of Hiroshima's story that matters most to you.

Peace Park only

Stops: 5, 6, 7, 8

For anyone with a morning or an afternoon who wants the heart of Hiroshima's story. From the A-Bomb Dome to the Peace Memorial Museum you walk just 11 minutes; the only ticket is the museum. Plan around two hours in total.

Garden, art and castle

Stops: 1, 2, 3

For a calmer half day in the older Hiroshima of daimyo and tea masters. Only 15 minutes of walking; tickets for Shukkeien Garden and the Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum, while Hiroshima Castle is free.

Castle to Peace Museum

Stops: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

For first-time visitors who want both eras without the garden. Walking adds up to 31 minutes; tickets for the Hiroshima Museum of Art, which you can skip, and the Peace Memorial Museum.

How Long Does This Hiroshima Tour Take, With and Without Museums?

The pure walking time is 47 minutes, and no single leg takes longer than 12. The route runs from the old feudal city around the garden and the castle down to the Peace Park, so the history unfolds in order and ends where it weighs most.

With every interior worth seeing you need a little over six hours: say 45 minutes each for the garden, the Prefectural Art Museum and the castle, an hour in the Museum of Art, a quarter of an hour at each memorial in the Peace Park and an hour and a half in the Peace Memorial Museum. Start at 09:00 and you finish around 15:10. Leave out both art museums and the walk shrinks to roughly four and a half hours.

Before You Set Off in Hiroshima

• Start: Shukkeien Garden is the recommended starting point, but you can join the route at any stop and follow it from there.
• Finish: The walk ends at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, inside the Peace Park.
• Best day: If the art museums matter to you, pick a day when both are open; they and some other stops close on certain days of the week or year.
• Best time of day: Start in the morning, once the garden has opened. That gets you to the castle in good time and leaves the Peace Memorial Museum for the end.
• Costs: The castle and the three Peace Park memorials are free. The four other sites charge admission; students and younger visitors pay less or nothing.

Common Questions About Walking Hiroshima