Large rooms with few walls allow for defenders to respond to whichever side is imperiled by attackers. We took our shoes off and took the obligatory tour up and down steep stair cases and vaguely following the poor English of our tour guide. What was most impressive of this castle was the "daimyo's" residence (translated as a palace). The regional feudal lord, of the samurai class, would have lived in this really neat palace below the donjon. Surrounding the palace was a Buddhist rock garden with carefully raked rows of pebbles. Once inside, we took our shoes off and enjoyed the simple Japanese elegance of indoor design.
Sliding shoji doors separated large tatami floored rooms with few furniture items to be seen. Indoor gardens were visible along inner secretive walk way, and I was most impressed with the gutter system carefully moving water into tiny indoor streams. Oddly we discovered a room with the local kami (spirit gods?) costume for the local summer festival held every three years. We enjoyed the town, only a two hour drive south, so much we intend to attend the festival in OCT 2012.
Indoor streams?? Wow! So lovely!
ReplyDeletegreat pics!!
ReplyDeleteI know! It was so beautiful! I took many more pictures of the palace that I will have to post later. I love Japanese architecture!
ReplyDeleteThank you! :)
ReplyDelete