On our trip to Tanegashima (about which you can read here: Tanegashima), we also stopped by Himeji to visit the castle. This castle is one of only 12 remaining today in a more or less preserved state. Today Japan has many castles open for visitors but most are reconstructions from the 60ies and some of those are even build of concrete.
In Himeji you can see one of the reasons why only so few original castles remain today. Even though the foundation of a Japanese castle is made of solid stone, the actual buildings are made of wood.
One way to protect the castle from fire was placing of warding sculptures in the shape of fish on the roofs. However this did not always help…
Inside the castle some medieval weapons and armour on display. Even though it is in Europe not commonly associated with Samurai, the Japanese castles were well adapted to the use of firearms and they all have the characteristic square shaped embrasures for muskets.
One square along the castle wall is called Harakiri maru. It is disputed whether this place was actually used for ritual suicide but apparently the layout of one of the buildings (as seen on the photograph) suggests this.
2 comments:
Hey Mr./Mrs. Worldtraveller -
This truely is a great place! I would love to see it...
Greetings from Duesseldorf
Jan
You should come to Japan then. Hurry up, while the Euro is still strong. It's a great place!
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