Saga Prefectural Nagoya Castle Museum

The Saga Prefectural Nagoya Castle Museum stands on the grounds of the Nagoya Castle ruins in Chinzei-cho, Karatsu, and is devoted to the history of exchange between Japan and the Korean peninsula, centered on the 16th-century invasions of Korea launched from this site by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1592 and 1597. Opened in 1993 under the Saga prefectural government, the museum's permanent collection includes excavated artifacts from the castle ruins and the surrounding satellite camps, period maps and screens depicting the campaigns, and materials illustrating centuries of earlier and later Japan-Korea cultural contact, including Joseon-dynasty ceramics, Tsushima trade documents, and reproductions of diplomatic correspondence. The galleries are arranged thematically rather than strictly chronologically, opening with the archaeology of the Nagoya Castle site itself before moving into broader exhibits on the Bunroku-Keicho campaigns and their long-term consequences, including the forced resettlement of Korean potters who founded the Arita and Karatsu ceramic traditions. A notable curatorial stance of the museum, unusual for a site tied to a war of aggression, is its explicit framing of the invasions as a historical tragedy for both Korea and Japan, with exhibits developed in consultation with Korean historians and museums, reflecting a deliberate effort at reconciliation-oriented interpretation. The building itself is a modern single-story structure with large glass frontage overlooking the Genkai Sea, distinct in character from the surrounding stone ruins. Admission to the permanent collection is free, with special exhibitions charged separately, and the museum is well preserved, having undergone periodic exhibit renewal since opening. As the primary interpretive center for the Nagoya Castle ruins, the museum's collection and framing make it one of the few Japanese institutions to present the Korea invasions from a binational historical perspective rather than solely a domestic military narrative.