Komine Castle is the obvious first stop in Shirakawa. The original castle guarded the Oshu Kaido road north; the reconstructed three-storey turret and stone walls now stand in a park a few minutes on foot from Shirakawa Station.
The castle was badly damaged in the Boshin War, and the present timber reconstruction dates from the 1990s. Come for the shape of the walls, the view over the town, and the sense of how Shirakawa controlled movement between Kanto and Tohoku.