Exterior view of Kumamoto Castle. This is one of the outer walls looking over a moat and bridge to the main keep. The leftmost "turret" has five floors and offers an amazing view of the surroundings. The walls have narrow rectangular cutouts for firing arrows down on invaders.
The main keep is under renovation and it made me not want to take many pictures of it.
"Best 3" my ass! This year marks its 400th anniversary - although the main castle was destroyed by fire in 1877. Originally populated by two generations of the Kato line, in the 1630's Lord Hosokawa moved in and kept it for 11. At one point, Miyamoto Musashi becomes retainer to him and is considered a guest. I wonder what room they put him up in.
View of the same turret from the inside. It is one of the few surviving originals on the grounds, because on that fateful day in 1877, the wind happened to be blowing away from it.
View from the 5th floor of the wall turret, modern Kumamoto in the distance.
I wanted to get a shot that exposed how tall and angled the walls truly are. There are varying styles of construction represented at this location, but most follow the same idea of stacking alternating stones together and filling in the cracks with.. more stones. The one on the right is much steeper at the top than the one on the left - suggesting it was built later. People for comparison.
