Castles城
Climb one of the twelve original keeps.
Climb one of the twelve original keeps.
Japan had thousands of castles. Most were pulled down in the nineteenth century, and few of the rest came through the century that followed. Twelve still have their original main keep — the wooden tower you climb is the one that was built four hundred years ago, with the stairs and the smell of old timber to prove it.
The others are careful concrete or wooden reconstructions, and several are excellent — Osaka and Nagoya are impressive buildings with good museums inside. But if you want to stand inside the real thing, look for the twelve. They are steep, dim, and worth the socks.
Shoes come off in an original keep, and the stairs are steep and narrow — not for a buggy. Walk the stone walls too: the walls are often older and better than the tower, and they are free.
Original keeps are marked. Each links to the prefecture it is in.
Original. Never burned, never fell, never rebuilt. Fifteen minutes on foot from the shinkansen.
Original. Black, five storeys, about 1594, with the Alps behind it.
Original. Finished 1622, with a garden and a moat boat, and no queue.
Original. The only one that kept both its keep and the lord’s residence below.
Original. On a hill over the city, by chairlift or on foot.
Original. Small, plain and stone-roofed, and never rebuilt.
The repair work is visible, and the curved walls are enormous.
A reconstruction in a large park of stone walls and moats, with cherry trees all round.