A symbol of the city is its most famous dish, katsuo tataki, made by lightly searing and seasoning bonito.

The northern mountains form the least densely populated part of the city, with the only settlement being along narrow river valleys.

It is also the most typhoon-prone of Japan's major cities owing to its location directly exposed to the open Pacific Ocean from which the storms enter the country, and has twice received over 50 cm (20 in) of rainfall in a day from a typhoon.

The castle site was chosen by Yamauchi Kazutoyo in 1601 to replace the earlier seats of the Chōsokabe clan who had previously ruled in province.

As the centre of administration for the province, and the prefecture which succeeded it, the town rapidly grew to become the largest settlement of the region.

During the time of the Meiji Restoration, Kōchi became famous as a centre of pro-imperial ideology, and later for incubating democratic and human rights movements.

Kōchi was selected as a target by the United States' XXI Bomber Command because of the city's status as a prefectural capital, and the fact that it was a centre for industry and commercial trade.

1060 tons of incendiary bombs were dropped on Kōchi, destroying 48% of the built up areas of the city, killing 401 civilians and rendering over 40,000 homeless.

Kōchi has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral city council of 42 members.

Other places of interest in the city centre are the Obiyamachi (帯屋町) shopping arcade, the regular Sunday street markets which are close to a kilometre in length, and Harimayabashi (はりまや橋), a bridge that featured in a famous Kōchi song about the forbidden love of a Buddhist priest.

The mountain Godaisan (五台山) holds a public park with views of the city, and is home to stop 31 on the Shikoku Pilgrimage, Chikurin-ji, as well as the Makino Botanical Garden.