Noah Count
Senior Member
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2016
- Posts
- 5,535
So straight of the bat this is not a live TR but over the years I managed to get to them all, I had some time to spare and started pulling this together as I thought as the years go by I would start to forget the information. If on a mission, one could visit all of them in 3-4 weeks but if you are in for the hard slog they could be done quicker depending on willingness to travel and how long you spend in each location. The definition of what classes as one of the 12 can be found on the internet, for the purposes of this post I am using the following which seems to be well accepted.
An “original” castle is one in which the central keep (tenshu,) has in general not been reconstructed. However, in some cases renovations/ reconstructions may have occurred but fundamentally they are still mainly the wood and stone that survived the post 1868 (Meiji restoration) and subsequent years. These are not my words just are an acceptance of the castles that are now considered as the 12 originals.
Some are bigger than others while others have had the original ground turned into parks, others have small museums and other original structures. IMO you just need to imagine how they may have looked in their hay day. I am no expert in Japanese castle history, and the following are just my comments on how I got to all of them and photos. If I have added details about the castle, it may have been borrowed from the web. There will be no details of accommodation or places to eat, the posts are just details, at a high level, of the castles and how I got to them as everyone’s travels are different. The photos may be out of order as I have used mine taken from the iPhone, iPad, proper camera and some pinched from Mrs&MissN.
If you have no interest in Japanese Castles, there may be no point in looking at the TR as there are a lot of photos and not many words. I have been to a couple more than once. In no order of my visits but starting in the west:
An “original” castle is one in which the central keep (tenshu,) has in general not been reconstructed. However, in some cases renovations/ reconstructions may have occurred but fundamentally they are still mainly the wood and stone that survived the post 1868 (Meiji restoration) and subsequent years. These are not my words just are an acceptance of the castles that are now considered as the 12 originals.
Some are bigger than others while others have had the original ground turned into parks, others have small museums and other original structures. IMO you just need to imagine how they may have looked in their hay day. I am no expert in Japanese castle history, and the following are just my comments on how I got to all of them and photos. If I have added details about the castle, it may have been borrowed from the web. There will be no details of accommodation or places to eat, the posts are just details, at a high level, of the castles and how I got to them as everyone’s travels are different. The photos may be out of order as I have used mine taken from the iPhone, iPad, proper camera and some pinched from Mrs&MissN.
If you have no interest in Japanese Castles, there may be no point in looking at the TR as there are a lot of photos and not many words. I have been to a couple more than once. In no order of my visits but starting in the west:
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