Shiro: The Japanese Castle

We have the castles in many places in Japan. They are very beautiful. Some of them are originally old. Of course there are many rebuilt ones too. Nevertheless being rebuilt, most of their stonewalls were the old ones.
These are the pictures which I took when I visited the places on business.

Himeji-jo Castle
One of Japanese National Treasures. Himeji is west of Osaka. The castle is so beautiful. I feel it is as if the beautiful lady. Most of the buildings were originally built several hundreds years ago.

Odawara-jo Castle
Not big castle. The castle was rebuilt but very cute. There are a lot of carp in the moat. The moat was built surrounding the castle. This is to protect enemy's attack. As you know, the castle was once the fort for the Samurai Warriors.

Nagoya-jo Castle
Rebuilt castle, located in Nagoya, between Tokyo and Osaka. The castle is famous because of The Fabulous Golden Dolphin-like Fish at the top of the roof. Like dolphin, the water-animal-sculpture was placed at the roof to prevent fire, I guess.

Osaka-jo Castle
Located in Osaka, the second-largest city in Japan, west of Tokyo. The castle was rebuilt. The original castle was built about 400 years ago and was once the largest in Japanese history.

fumi.kobayashi@nifty.com