Cease fire!

     

On the 14th of April 2010 an attempt at arson was made upon the Najima Gate of Fukuoka Castle. This is pretty big news in my world as it was one of the first castle-related buildings I’d ever seen. You may recall in a recent post titled Wooden buildings burn where I’d stated that at any time, any one of Japan’s historical buildings could go up in flames, how spooky that this almost came to pass and so soon. Whoever attempted to set the old gate ablaze should have their thumbs cut off then made to text message everyone in Japan apologizing.

The incident:
At about 5:40 on Wednesday morning, two men attempted to torch the gate. Fortunately, all they succeeded in doing was to singe a 30cm square area on one of the doors before hot footing it. An early riser was able to raise the alarm by notifying the police. The investigation continues.

The gate:
The gate was built along with Najima Castle back to 1587 by the Kobayakawa clan. I find it an odd looking gate, partly because of its black and white exterior & partly because there is just something odd about it. As to its structure, it’s a free-standing, turret-topped gate with roof tiles that appear to date from the modern era.

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  • http://toshogu.blogspot.com Tornadoes28

    How odd. Why would they want to torch this gate? We always ask why criminals do what they do but most times it is obvious. This makes no sense, even for some young punks. If they want to see something burn, why not just torch some abandoned haikyo.

  • http://www.poolofzen.com コルーズ・真秀

    I’m surprised that these older structures aren’t monitored by remote infrared cameras. The system could send an alarm to the police / fire-station if a heat signature appeared over a certain number of degrees. Infrared Tech is a lot cheaper these days. You’d think it would be worth it for these structures. Once they’re gone they’re gone.

    It could be that access is gained from one of the the barred windows on hinges. The occupants could pull a ladder up behind them. This would make them slightly harder for approaching enemies to eliminate. Of course, since it has been re-located, we don’t get to see the whole thing in its original form.

    Thanks for the post. I had heard the news story and wondered what the structure actually was.

  • admin

    Tornadoes28, I find it very hard to wrap my head around it. Actually, I can’t. I don’t believe in anything strongly enough to want to burn anything to the ground, let alone an historical building.

    Perhaps it was an effort to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of Fukuoka’s Otemon being set fire to. :)

  • admin

    Matt, I did see in a follow up article that money has now been set aside for surveillance equipment by the local government. As usual, we had to wait until something happened.

    As for access to the roof atop the gate, teleporters?