The 12 Original Castles of Japan

[Noah Count]

Hikone.

 

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The 2 that are a little more difficult to get to as they are a bit out of the way are Maruoka and Hirosaki.

IMO Maruoka is the most likely the most difficult to get to, there is a train station in the town however the castle is not that close. I ended up in a cab from Fukui to the castle. I had no idea how I was going to get back but a bus came along and I just jumped on and with broken Japanese/ English conversation with the driver trusted I would get back to Fukui.

 

[Noah Count]

 

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Finally is Hirosaki, it is the northern most in original castle in Japan, getting to Hirosaki is not hard and you change to the local line. The Castle is around 30-45miniute walk from the station and set in what was once castle ground but has since become parklands and gardens like many other castle locations in Japan. At the time when I went there it is not in its correct location. From what I understand it was moved while the original stone foundations are been restored and it will be dismantled and put back it its correct location.

 

[Noah Count]

 

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I think that was the quickest TR I have ever compiled, however it has been 10-15+ years in the making. Hopefully someone may get some use out of it, if not I was able to fill in some of my time.

 

[Dmac59]

Great work @Noah Count
Very interesting viewing.
The standout was 'where are all the tourists'

 

[VPS]

Well done

 

[Noah Count]

......
The standout was 'where are all the tourists'

Please trust me when I say I have many photos that include tourists, selfies, etc. Sometimes you can just step L or R by a feet or so and reframe, I am not interested in what the tiktok's or instargrammer's are interested in. I just take old fashion family shots and some of the ones posted have been pinched from my wife.

 

[RooFlyer]

Very jealous. I’ve only been to one Himinji, and that took three attempts!

There I marvelled at the fact that it despite the entire wooden construction, labyrinth of ways and density of people, there was not one emergency evacuation sign to be seen nor a fire extinguisher!

 

[Noah Count]

Very jealous. I’ve only been to one Himinji, and that took three attempts!

There I marvelled at the fact that it despite the entire wooden construction, labyrinth of ways and density of people, there was not one emergency evacuation sign to be seen nor a fire extinguisher!

We are known to each other so please don't take the wrong way to be best of my knowledge it is Himeji not Himinji. From a TR in 2024 "Also when we were at around the 4th floor we started hearing sirens, MrsM immediately asked if there was an earthquake. I said no the earthquake warning is different. The locals were not worried but were interested to know what was going on in town. Turns out it was a building fire. A hour later the fire fighters were still working on the fire." details here

 

[TheRealTMA]

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:

Excellent TR. Thanks. Like our Tasmanian friend, jealous! Been a fan of Japanese castles since Kurosawa movies and various TV series like Shogun etc in the 70’s. Will never be able to do a trip like now.