I won’t say which castle it is, but with its distinctive, if exaggerated shape, I wonder if you can’t figure it out for yourselves. Would you like to take a guess at the name of the castle?

Someone has gone to a great deal of effort here. And, just to save you the guess work I did a bit of googling. Over the course of a year, about 150,000 toothpicks were assembled into this oddly proportioned Tenshu. I’m hoping they were unused toothpicks but I’d be impressed either way.

Atop the steeply-sloping stonework sits a five-layered, wooden donjon. Topping the tower is the immense & overhanging top floor. There is also a smaller tower attached by a single-story hallway.

My googling revealed quite a bit of toothpick modeling happening around the world with many of the world’s landmarks having been constructed. I had no idea such a hobby existed. It’s not exactly my cup of tea, but those toothpicks that come with the disposable chopsticks really are starting to pile up.

Behold, the lord's throne

The plumbing of Japanese castles isn’t exactly a commonly talked about topic. Given that there are a great many and more agreeable things to talk about, this probably comes as no surprise. If you keep reading, perhaps you’ll come to agree that there are points worthy of your interest & discussion.

Lifting the lid
On a recent visit to Kokura castle I was somewhat surprised to see a traditional squater on display. Some people refer to this type as the bobsled. It features a “T” handle to keep your balance in the event of the big one striking or even an earthquake. There is also a lid (which I presume was left up.)

Well, perhaps the lid wasn’t left up. A gaping hole in the floor is a potentially dangerous thing. It’s not that hard to imagine a drunken samurai putting his foot through or even losing hold of his mobile phone or keys down there.

Dark brown bowls
… could be used to describe Bizen-yaki, a popular regional style of pottery. But this wouldn’t be a fair description because they’ve also produced vases, cups and even, would you believe, the toilet bowls of Japan’s most celebrated castle, that of Himeji. The waste was delivered courtesy of gravity where it decelerated rapidly about a foot (300mm) from one’s bottom, even less if no-one got around to emptying it.

Nothing too serious for this post; and also no Engrish. I hope that hasn’t disappointed anyone. I just wanted to share some of the signs I’ve seen around Japan during my castle exploring activities. They’ll start off pretty innocuous & get steadily more… interesting.

The two signs above are both from inside the main tower of Kokura Castle. I like them because of what they are not. They could have gone with the standard, bought ones, but these guys are Samurai! Plus the oblivious smoker makes me smile.

Ōtomo Sōrin built Usuki Castle in 1562. The castle was built on a small, rice-grain-shaped island that pointed out to sea. Nowadays, the island has long since been swallowed up by land reclamation that has put the castle in the centre of town, its elevation providing shelter in the event of a tsunami.

Admit it. We all want to try climbing the Ishi-gaki. There are no excuses though, not even for the illiterate. This one is located at the base of Kumamoto‘s main tower. I wonder if this was one of the ways they kept ninjas out back in the day. Maybe while they were reading the sign giant red shurikens would rain down from above.

Step away from the giant poodle. No, as you can probably guess, it isn’t castle related, I just wanted to share it. Has anyone seen any odd/funny signs? Engrish is well and truly allowed in the comments section below. Why not share?

Image: Japan Times

I came across this interesting story (dated: 20 Nov) on the Japan Times website. It’s about a nonprofit organization called the Osaka Armor Corps and their mission to purge the Osaka castle grounds of every cigarette butt & piece of garbage they can get their katana-like tongs on.

The volunteers have been on the job since 2003 and back in those days they would lug away a truckload of rubbish. Nowadays though, the 20-or-so Samurai garbologists are carting away only a couple of large garbage bags worth.

The man heading the charge is Kazumi Kawai, a part-time high school teacher, who also instructed his troop on how to make the their armour using cardboard strengthened with a special type of paint.

Not only are they doing a great job cleaning up one of Osaka’s great tourist attractions, but the tourists are loving it too, asking members of the Armor Corps to pose in photos.

Image credit: Yomiuri Online

For a good cause

Seems like castles all over Japan have been trying to out light up each other of late. And all for good causes. It was mid-October when Nagoya, Kokura & Kouchi castles where all dressed in a lovely shade of pink to raise the awareness of breast cancer, and now one month later several castles are donning a blue hue in aid of World Diabetes Day.

Pictured is Matsumoto castle of Nagano Prefecture. Toyama castle of Toyama Prefecture is also received the blue rinse.

Masutomi Castle, the overnight castle

There is one other castle that has just wrapped up its light up activities. It wasn’t in relation to a specific cause but to a legend instead. When Toyotomi Hideyoshi was in the process of pacifying Kyushu and about to engage the Akizuki clan, he had an enemy’s fallen castle covered in white paper overnight to give the illusion that it had been re-plastered. To the Akizuki clan, it had a demoralizing affect for it looked as though the invading armies had truly infinite resources. This prompted Akizuki Tanezane to surrender.

Every year the local residents celebrate this historical event by erecting scaffolding in the shape of a castle (it looks way better than it sounds) and illuminate it for a week to remember the castle that was built overnight.