Kumamoto onion

     

Every Japanese castle was made up of layers; rings of defence that, if breached, would still be at the mercy of turrets & arrow-slot-laden walls further in, then finally, the main tower itself. In a place & time of small-scale siege weapons, it was a world of hurt.

A world of hurt was exactly what Katō Kiyomasa experienced in Korea during a prolonged siege at Ulsan castle (蔚山倭城) in the Winter of 1598. Such was the wretched bleakness of that siege that he would set his mind to build arguably Japan’s strongest castles on his return to his home province of Higo (肥後国).

The result was Kumamoto castle, and it means business. There is no showing off with car-sized stones from the backs of trucks, no fancy-pants, gold-leaf roof tiles. Kiyomasa knew exactly what was important, and it was more than just truly ingeniously-designed rings of doom! The soldiers manning those walls needed sustenance.

  • over 120 wells were dug to ensure an unfailing water supply
  • Ginkgo trees were planted within the grounds. (the tree produces edible nuts)
  • Tatami flooring was stuffed, not with rice straw, but with vegetable stalks so as they could be eaten

Tatami stuffing & nuts anyone? There’s plenty to go around!

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  • Paula

    I was *just* reading in a research article about siege warfare tonight how it’s supposed that some castle furnishers would stuff dried bracken and washed rice as their tatami filling in case a prolonged siege got really bad. Oddly timed and appropriate article to post. :)

    - Paula
    http://shinpaideshou.wordpress.com/

  • Toranosukev

    Are you sure they didn’t plant the gingko trees to drive the attackers off with the foul smell?

  • Anonymous

    isseki ni (i)chō. Lol, that doesn’t even make sense.

  • Toranosukev

    But I see what you were going for. Two gingkos with one stone. Oh, wait, no. That doesn’t make sense at all. (w)

  • Anonymous

    Spooky timing…

    These research papers you’re always reading, are they publicly available? I’ve only learnt about castles from walking around. I feel there is so much I’m missing.

  • Paula

    I’m just reading Owada Tetsuo’s “Sengoku no Shiro” all the way through. :) I was thinking of translating some of it (taking all my notes in English), if I do I’ll let you know! Maybe in March after my thesis is (hopefully) done…

  • http://urutoranohihi.blogspot.com/ Lina

    Interesting. They’d probably can withstand a siege for long periods but then, how long can you stand eating tatami stuffing and nuts?

  • Anonymous

    I think you are right. After eating tatami stuffing and nuts everyday, you’d probably prefer to face the enemy and not come back.

  • fb minis

    My growing interest on japanese culture got me into building a paper model of Kumamoto Castle, after I’d already built Osaka Castle. These kits are actually offered by Canon Japan for free and they’re quite pleasant to work with.

    However, I have a doubt about it’s configuration. It’s seems to me that the rock walls are higher than what can be seen today. Did the castle actually look like this model at some point, or did they take some artistic liberties while creating the model?

    Please have a look:

    http://fbminisworkbench.blogspot.com/search/label/Kumamoto%20Castle%20Canon%20Papercraft