Ferry schedules at Takamatsu Port run to rhythms that feel older than the Seto Ohashi Bridge — connections to islands, connections to Honshu, the port itself still carrying the logic of a city that exists because of water. Takamatsu is a castle town turned prefectural capital, a place where branch offices of national companies cluster alongside government agencies, giving the city a particular weekday density that smaller Shikoku towns lack entirely.
The covered arcade of the Marugamemachi shopping district stretches long enough that the light changes as you walk it — overhead glass panels, the smell of udon broth drifting from somewhere mid-block, storefronts cycling between the practical and the occasional. Sanuki udon is not a tourist performance here; it is lunch, eaten standing or at a plain counter, before returning to work. The Kagawa Prefectural Museum and the Takamatsu City Museum of History sit within reach of the castle grounds, where the history of the Takamatsu Domain and the Genpei battle at Yashima still surfaces in the city's self-understanding.
Out past the city center, the terrain shifts. Yashima rises as a flat-topped plateau above the coast. Inland, the road toward Shionoe follows a valley to a quieter register — a roadside station, a reservoir, the Shionoe hot spring area sitting beside the Uchiba Dam watershed. Isshiki Hachiman-gu, the city's tutelary shrine, fills its approach road with pedestrians during the annual festival. These are not destinations arranged for visitors; they are the ordinary furniture of a port city that has been organizing itself around this stretch of the Seto Inland Sea for a very long time.
Where to stay
A day is rarely enough.
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The islands of Takamatsu, Kagawa
What converges here
10 in this city. 28 within 25 km of the city hall.
- Takamatsu Art Museum
- Kagawa University Museum
- The Kagawa Museum
- Takamatsu Historical Museum
- Kikuchi Kan Memorial Museum
See 23 more
- Shikoku Mura Gallery
- Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum
- Stone Museum
- Seto Inland Sea Folk History Museum
- Shionoe Museum of Art
- Hiraga Gennai Memorial Museum
- Benesse House Museum
- Benesse Art Site Naoshima
- Lee Ufan Museum
- Chichu Art Museum
- Naoshima New Museum of Art
- Sakaide City Salt Industry Museum
- Kagawa Prefecture Archaeological Center
- Teshima Yokoo House
- Teshima Art Museum
- Kōfū-en
- Kamada Foundation Museum
- Sakaide Civic Art Museum
- Hōsai Ozaki Memorial Hall
- Seto Ōhashi Commemorative Hall
- Shodoshima Yokai Art Museum
- Marugame City Museum
- Tsuboi Sakae Memorial Museum
Distances are straight-line from the municipal office. Each website was checked in September 2026. Some locations © OpenStreetMap contributors.
- Sanuki Kokubunji Temple Ruins
- Ritsurin Park
- Katsuга Castle Ruins
- Yashima
- Ishizumio-yama Tumulus Group
- Sanuki Kokubunji Nunnery Ruins
- Takamatsu Castle Ruins
- Hiunkan Garden
- Kokubunji Main Hall
- Kohiga Family Residence (Omaya-cho, Takamatsu City, Kagawa Prefecture)
- Yashima-ji Main Hall
- Kohika Family Residence (Omaya-cho, Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture)
- Takamatsu Castle
- Takamatsu Castle
- Takamatsu Castle
- Kohiga Family Residence (Omayacho, Takamatsu, Kagawa)
- Former Shimoki Family Residence (formerly in Ichiura-mura, Mima-gun, Tokushima)
- Former Kono Family Residence (formerly located in Oda-cho, Kamiukena-gun, Ehime Prefecture)
- Obika Family Residence (Omayacho, Takamatsu, Kagawa)
- Takamatsu Castle
- Ogijima Lighthouse
- Ogijima Lighthouse
- Ogijima Lighthouse
- Hiunkan (Former Matsudaira Family Takamatsu Villa)
- Hiunkan (Former Matsudaira Family Takamatsu Villa)
- Hiunkan (Former Matsudaira Family Takamatsu Villa)
- Setonaikai Historical Folk Museum
- Kagawa Prefectural Government Office Former Main Building and East Wing
- Masui Family Garden (Unmon-an Roji)
- Setonaikai
- Shikoku Takamatsu Onsen
- Shionoe Onsen
- Aji Onsen
- Kajukai Onsen
- Mount Goken
- Takamatsu
- Kawaramachi
- Takamatsu-Chikko
- Katahara-machi
- Busshozan
- Ota
- Ritsurin-Koen
- Fushiishi
- Hataoka
- Sanjo
- Kuribayashi
- Rindo
- Enza
- Ichinomiya
- Katamoto
- Yashima
- Kuko-dori
- Takada
- Kinu
- Mizuta
- Kita-Higashiguchi
- Kozai
- Ritsurin-Koen-Kitaguchi
- Showamachi
- Hanazono
- Motoyama
- Yakuri
- Kitacho
- Rokumanji
- Kotoden-Yashima
- Kokubu
- Okamoto
- Okimatsushima
- Furu-Takamatsu
- Imabashi
- Kasugagawa
- Matsushima-Nichome
- Yaguchiguchi
- Sanuki-Mure
- Furu-Takamatsu-Minami
- Omachi
- Yashakuri-Sanjo
- Yashaku-Tozanguchi
- Yakuri-Shindo
- Hara
- Nishimaeda
- Shioya
- Fusazaki
- Kawaramachi
- Kawaramachi
- Takamatsu
- Takamatsu Airport