Hiroshima Castle, around which grew the present town was built in the late XVI century and survived all the old traditional Japanese buildings natural disasters and organized medieval man problem - raiding, fires and earthquakes. But it was razed to the ground in the XX century - at the time of the atomic bombing in August 1945. From the building leaving only the stone foundations and fragments of walls, now there is a memorial plaque in memory of the nuclear disaster occurred. In 1958, the castle was rebuilt in reinforced concrete. The work was done including on funds donated by residents of the city - it was restored Gokoku Jinja Shinto shrine, part of the castle complex.

Now the building of the castle is a museum, which presents the history of the castle itself, there are also exhibitions devoted to Japanese culture. One of the values ​​of the museum is a collection of swords dating back to the XVIII century. In the upper level of the castle is an observation deck, which offers views of Hiroshima and Miyajima Island.

Construction of the castle in this area was started in 1589 by order of the feudal lord Mori Terumoto, who ruled Japan in nine provinces .  The place chosen for the construction of his castle was the center of the lands managed .  It was decided to build a castle on an island in the delta of the Ota .  Before the advent of the castle in this land there was a large settlement, the area was called Gokamuroy (translated as "five villages") .  With the advent of the land around the castle began to be built and populated, and this process took place spontaneously and chaotically, without planning .  Then the castle town Hiroshima was called - under the name of the castle .  According to one version, the name was formed as a derivative of fragments of names of two people - the founder of Mori clan and daimyo assistant .  In the second version, the castle got its name at the location in the delta of Ota .  It is translated from Japanese as "wide island" .  The castle was also known as "The Castle of the carp" as the area near the river called "Gulf carp" . 

In 1600, after the Battle of Sekigahara Mori Terumoto I lost almost all their possessions and left the castle. The new owner became Masanori Fukushima, daimyo provincial Aki and Bingo, which later formed the prefecture of Hiroshima. In 1617 he was transferred to another area, and the castle came into the possession of Clan Asano two and a half centuries. During this time, the castle changed owners 12.

In 1894, during the Sino-Japanese War in the castle based General Staff of the Armed Forces of Japan. Since 1931 the castle has the status of national treasure.