The attraction of Himeji Castle

This Himeji Castle was registered in 1993 as one of the first UNESCO World Heritage in Japan. As the reason of this registration can list the following 2 things. 1: The perfect beauty of Himeji Castle ranks highest on the wooden architecture of Japan. 2: The good preservation of the castle complex is worth to be a World Heritage. This castle complex contains the main keep, the small keeps, the turrets, gates, stone wall and moat.
 
“White Heron Castle” is another name for the Himeji Castle as the appearance of it looks like a white heron landed softly on this Himeyama mountain. From Oct. 2009 to March 2015, Himeji Castle was repaired in large-scale, it was plastered and reroofed completely. Some Himeji citizen complains that this dazzling white became too much after repair. But the professional says that it will be not so dazzled in 3 years because of wing and rain. Yes, the ending of the repair means the beginning of next repair.
 
I think that the lucky of Himeji Castle and the enthusiasm for preservation of many person leads to the honor of being registered a World Heritage. Himeji city was bombed in World War 2nd. When an incendiary bomb was dropped into a main keep, it did not blast luckily. A big project of repairing Himeji Castle lasted 9 years from 1956 to 1964. In this project, it was disassemble and repaired completely. To solve the problem of twist structure and subsided foundation, to support the main keep, the concrete base was constructed. So many government officials, engineers and craftsmen joined this project. The total number of man-days became 250,000. They did their best to show their skills as an expert. Each of them needed the boldness and sensitivity to achieve the goal, to reproduce the beauty with the better material to preserve.
 

When you arrive at JR Himeji Station, you will find the white graceful castle at the end of the main street. You might imagine the samurai or princess lived in there. But this castle was not only the residence of a feudal lord but also the fort to engage the enemy. The time when this castle was constructed, the Warring States period was not finished, so there are many ideas to fight with the enemy.  I would like to show you many ideas to survive in the Warring States period.