10-3 Japanese Castle

Japanese castles are so unique in the structure and the idea of the defenses. So I would like to briefly write the information about Japanese castle that it’s difference from other county’s one. And now, most of Japanese castles are tourist attractions and we can go into the inside of the castles and walk around the Japanese gardens in Japanese castles. I listed the famous Japanese castles at the end of this page. So it would be interesting experience for you that you visit one of the famous castles in Japan.

Defense

There are a lot of towns called "Joka-Machi" in Japan. It’s a kind of Japanese downtown and it defended the castle in the past. So the Joka-Machi were build to surround the castle, so the structure of the Joka-Machi are similar as snail shells in other words. So the enemy couldn’t go straight ahead the castle by the structure of the Joka-Machi. So the king used Joka-Machi for their defenses when the war started.

Japanese castles weren’t only defended by the Joka-Machi but also their moats defended the castles. The moat is one of the obstacles dug the grand and it has two kinds, which are empty moat and water moat filled with water. Generally, they dug some moats and we call outside moat "Soto-Bori" and inside moat "Uchi-Bori", and we call middle moat "Naka-Bori" if they have three layers.

Kinds

What kinds of Japanese castles are there in Japan? It usually bases on the geographical features where the castle locates. And then we can select from three kinds, which are Yama-Jiro, Hira-Yama-Jiro and Hira-Jiro. And I wrote the differences between the three kinds at below.

Yama-Jiro

The Yama-Jiro were built on the mountain that is higher than 200 meter. The famous Yama-Jiro are Kasugayama castle, Yoshidakoriyama castle and Gifu castle.

Hira-Yama-Jiro

The Hira-Yama-Jiro were built on the small hills. The famous Hira-Yama-Jiro are Himeji castle, Hikone castle and Iyo-Matsumoto castle.

Hira-Jiro

The Hira-Jiro were built on the level ground. The famous castles are Nagoya castle, Osaka castle.

From historical eyes, the style of castle had changed from Yama-Jiro to Hira-Jiro, in other words from the top of the mountain to level grand. The castles on the level grand would be more convenience than ones on the mountain in moving and managing.

Famous Castles

I would like to list the famous Japanese castles below. I also added Japanese map, so please check the locations with the information.

At first I have to write about Himeji castle for the best castle. The castle was registered in World Heritage in December 11th, 1933 and the Tenshu is also Japanese national treasure. Maybe I need to write about Tenshu that is the most important building that they used it as an observation platform and head office in the castle at the war. And there are four castles that have their national treasure Tenshu, which are Matsumoto castle in Nagano, Hikone castle in Shiga, Inuyama castle in Aichi and Himeji castle.

In additionally, Himeji castle is included the most famous three castles in Japan. The others are Kumamoto castle and Nagoya castle.

Please check their locations.

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