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HOME > Japan’s Local Treasures > Takada Castle Site Park Lotus Festival
See the flowers bloom on one of the world’s largest lotus ponds at the former site of a castle in Niigata
Joetsu City, Niigata Prefecture
Each year, in the height of summer, Takada Castle Site Park in Joetsu City, Niigata Prefecture, showcases one of the most spectacular floral displays in Asia. The 19-hectare outer moat that surrounds the castle ruins is awash in a sea of crimson red and white as Japanese lotus flowers emerge from the depths of the pond and burst into bloom.
Spiritual and enchanting, the lotus flowers of Takada Castle Site date back more than 150 years to 1871, when the ruling Takada domain fell into financial difficulties due to war and crop failure. In a bid to raise revenue, a local landowner, Hosaka Sadakichi, planted lotus roots for commercial harvest in the castle moat. The lotus thrived, and in 1953 the site was recognized by Oga Ichiro, a paleobotanist known as “Lotus,” as one of the largest-scale lotus ponds in the world, rare in its combination of red and white blooms.
The lotus roots were harvested until 1962, and since then, the flowers have continued to attract visitors from around the world. In 1983, 12 new species of lotus were donated to the Takada Castle Site Park collection by Professor Kitamura Fumio of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tokyo. These can be seen on the north side of the Nishibori Bridge footbridge that spans the outer moat. One of Niigata’s summer highlights, the Takada Castle Site Park Lotus Festival takes place from mid-July until mid-August.
How to get there
From JR Tokyo Station, take the Hokuriku Shinkansen to Joetsu Myoko Station. From Joetsu Myoko Station, take a cab to the destination (10 minutes), or take the Echigo Tokimeki Railway Myoko Haneuma Line to Takada Station and walk there (15 minutes).
From Takada Station, you can also take the Kubiki Bus. The castle is a 1-minute walk from the Takada Joshi Koen bus stop.
44-1 Motoshiro-cho, Joetsu-shi, Niigata-ken
