Takamatsu
Garden city and gateway to the art islands
Go because it's the easiest way onto Shikoku, home to one of Japan's very finest gardens — and the launch point for the famous art islands of the Inland Sea.
Come for Ritsurin Garden, a vast and exquisite landscape garden many rank among the country's best; for bowls of chewy local Sanuki udon, a genuine regional obsession; and for the ferries to Naoshima and the other art islands, just offshore. A relaxed, walkable city and the natural first stop in Shikoku.
For most travellers Takamatsu is the door into Shikoku — the port where road, rail and ferry from Honshu converge — but it's well worth pausing for in its own right. Its great glory is Ritsurin, a garden of such scale and refinement that it rivals Japan's official "three great gardens," and many quietly prefer it. The city is also the springboard for the Seto Inland Sea's celebrated art islands, and the home of Sanuki udon, the thick white noodles that locals pursue with something close to devotion. Easy-going and well connected, it's the ideal base for a first Shikoku trip.
A little background
Takamatsu developed as a castle town and a key Inland Sea port, its castle unusually built right on the sea with moats fed by the tide. Ritsurin Garden was created over more than a century by the local lords, completed in the mid-1700s as a strolling garden of ponds, hills and teahouses set against a wooded mountain "borrowed" as backdrop. In recent decades the region has reinvented itself around the Setouchi Triennale, the art festival that transformed nearby islands like Naoshima into world-famous destinations — and made Takamatsu their gateway.
What to see
Ritsurin Garden. The city's masterpiece: a large, beautifully composed strolling garden of ponds, arched bridges, clipped pines and teahouses, with a mountain rising behind. Have matcha in a lakeside teahouse and climb to the classic viewpoint. One of the finest gardens in Japan.
The art islands. From Takamatsu port, ferries run to Naoshima and its neighbours Teshima and Shōdoshima — the contemporary-art islands of the Inland Sea (Naoshima has its own page).
Sanuki udon. Kagawa is Japan's udon heartland, and Takamatsu is the place to eat it — thick, chewy, springy noodles in hot broth or cold with dipping sauce, at counters where you often serve yourself. A local rite of passage.
Takamatsu Castle & Yashima. The seaside castle ruins and Tamamo Park in town; and, on the city's edge, the flat-topped plateau of Yashima, an ancient battlefield with Inland Sea views.
How to get there
Takamatsu is the most accessible point in Shikoku: about 2.5–3 hours from Osaka by train (crossing the great Seto-Ōhashi bridge from Okayama), a short flight from Tokyo, or by ferry. From Okayama on the shinkansen line it's just over an hour — making Takamatsu an easy addition to a westbound trip. The garden and port are a short ride from the station.
When to go & practical notes
Spring and autumn are ideal; Ritsurin is beautiful in cherry-blossom and in autumn colour, and lovely when lit for seasonal evening illuminations. If the Setouchi Triennale (held across the islands in three sessions during a festival year) coincides with your visit, the art islands are at their most alive — but busiest, so book ahead. Allow at least half a day for Ritsurin, plus a full day if you're ferrying out to Naoshima.