View of Himeji Castle from Nishi-no-maru
The Himeji Castle is situated in Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. It contains 83 buildings which are made with wood. Norimura Akamatsu, who was the ruler in 1333, constructed a fort where the castle stood. The fort was expanded further by Sadanori, the son of Norimura Akamatsu, in the year 1346.
During the Onin wars, the castle was severely damaged. Toyotami Hideyoshi took hold of the castle in the year 1580, and a three floored building was built in that place by Kuroda Yoshitaka. In the year 1600, Sekigahara Battle occurred and the Himeji Castle was handed to Ikeda Terumasa by Tokugawa Leyasu, to restore the Himeji castle. It took nine long years to bring back the Himeji Castle to its original shape.
Himeji was known to be the last construction during the Edo period. After that, Sakai Tadasumi descendents held the Himeji Castle until the Meiji Restoration. In the year 1868, the government of Japan took control of the castle. During War World II in 1945, bombings were held twice at Himeji Castle, causing severe damage to the castle. Later in 1956, the restoration of the castle started again.
The castle has a great structure and it is also called “White Heron” due to the fact that the walls comprises of white plaster. The white plaster is used as a fireproof. Compare to the other castles in Japan, the construction of the Himeji Castle is made of wood only. The Himeji Castle is constructed 45.6 meters high on the top of sea level, and on the hill known as Himeyama.
The Himeji Castle provides a great scenic beauty, from the walls base, the shape of fan curve can be seen. Also, there are beautiful green lush gardens in the Himeji Castle. The interesting factor at the Himeji castle is the design of the tower, where many people lost their way even though the directions are exactly marked.
Traveling to the Himeji Castle
Its just 20 minutes walk from the Himeji Station and a 5-minute ride from Otemae-Cori Street. The castle opens from 9:00 am and closes at 4:00 pm in the evening.
get help!!!!!!!!!!!
hey can u send information to my yahoo about himeji catle it is very intersting to me thank you and have amazing day
wow…..very interesting place
this sounds like a really interesting place. i want to go her some day 🙂
thanks for help
Having lived in Osaka 5 years I was privileged to see many sights…but…this is my very favorite place to visit in Japan.
nice place
I have visited Himeji many times and was fortunate to be there when twice a year they open certain parts to visitors.
There are so many things about Himeji that the average person never really learns about. For example: the stone casket was in building Himeji, the Christian Japanese general that was so thought of that end caps on one of the buildings are marked with a cross, the old woman that donated a huge stone for its building, the secret passage ways leading nowhere, the maidens well, the secret to the plaster used to build Himeji that science today can’t figure out how the ancients made it, the interesting way they built the lower levels upon a foundation and the upper levels built upon two hugh columns because the foundation would not support all the levels of the building. This is just some of the interesting tidbits I’ve discovered, and too detailed to give a detailed account into. Its one of those places that needs days to discover.