Castle Day
April 6th is Castle Day in Japan. It is an opportunity to celebrate the history and importance of castles. In the fifteenth century, Japan was a collection of numerous small independent states, which squabbled with each other. Castles were built on mountain tops for defence.
When Japan was unified in the late sixteenth century, larger castles were built as administrative and military centres. These were constructed on the plains or on small hills, rather than mountains.
Towards the end of the nineteenth century, castles were seen as undesirable reminders of the feudal past and many were deliberately demolished. Others were destroyed in the Second World War.
Japanese castles were wooden structures built on stone foundations. Today twelve castles survive with their original keeps.
For comparison, France has the most castles in the world, with 45,000. Italy has 20,000, and Germany has over 4,300. The British Isles has 3,000 to 4,000 castles.
The USA has 152 structures that are considered castles, but most are architectural reconstructions.
Don’t give Trump any ideas. He’ll want to start building castles. Bigly. With big, beautiful ballrooms like no one has ever seen.
ReplyDeleteI deliberately avoided reference to him! Gold-plated, they would be, too.
DeleteHow sad that only twelve castles survived. Your photo is beautiful!
ReplyDeleteThank you, The photo was my screensaver this morning.
DeleteSo we are extremely lucky to have Portchester Castle in our village.
ReplyDeleteYou are, indeed.
DeleteIt's sad that there aren't many that remain.
ReplyDeleteI love looking around a castle. So much history and such interesting designs.
I agree with the poster above - please don't give that person any ideas lol
In Kalamazoo, the town where I live there is a 'castle' (I use the term very loosely). It's called Henderson Castle. It's more like a mansion than a castle, lol, but I suppose castle sounds more interesting
We watch a short TV show every week called " Bicycle Japan". And what really interests us besides the bicycling of course, is all the history that they show in this short 30 minutes. We've seen a lot about the castles. And of course the temples.
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