According to many different sources, Himeji Castle is the best of the best Japanese castles. It is said to be so spectacular mainly because it was never destroyed and survived in its original form. The early beginnings of the castle reach the XVth century, however it was completed and remained unchanged since the XVIIth century. What's more, it was never conquered and in 1945 the bomb was dropped into the castle but miraculously didn't explode!
The most famous resident of the castle was Princess Sen (jap. Senhime). The princess was born in Tokugawa clan in XVIIth century. At her age of 7 the family arranged her marriage with Toyotomi Hideyori, to protect clan's from each other. Since then the couple lived in the Osaka castle but Tokugawa Ieyasu, Sen's grandfather decided to invade the castle anyway. Hideyori had to commit seppuku. Princess Sen was promised to the man who will rescue her before the castle's downfall. Poor guy got the burn while saving her and she refused to marry him because of that. One year didn't pass when she married handsome Honda Tadatoki with whom she lived happily in Himeji castle. They had 2 children, a boy and a girl. Unfortunately, Princess Sen lost her family before the age of 25. She cut her hair short, became a Buddhist nun and moved to Edo (modern Tokyo).
There is a legend about Honda's and Sen's love. He promised to give her anything she will ask for. Princess requested to make her live forever, so that she will be able to love him forever. Honda asked one witch he knew to find a solution. The witch checked out ancient Book of Death and prayed for immortal pear to appear. Honda and Princess Sen shared the pear as a sign of eternal love. However, the couple forgot to ask for eternal youth and since then they were getting older and older until they turned into arguing mouths, that will keep going on like that until the end of time.
While living in Himeji castle, Princess Sen used to spend most of the time on prayers in the temple and in her dressing rooms. Nowadays, Sen's dressing room is open for visitors in Himeji castle and there is even a doll that was based on a painting of Princess Sen. The scene includes ashtray with all smoking kit. Most of Sen's duties were simply enjoying her life in Himeji castle!
Every Japanese castle's main part is donjon- main tower, connected with surrounding buildings. One of the tricks to surprise the enemy was that 2nd and 3rd floor of donjon are actually one floor and seem to be separated just from the outside. Himeji castle is made of wood and covered with white plaster, mainly to protect the structure. The white color of the castle is the reason why is it commonly called White Heron castle.
Characteristic feature of Japanese castles are kinshachi, somehow considered to be equivalent of European gargoyles. Those lovely fish not only symbolised feudal lords authority, but also were used as fire prevention. In this case, it really worked out!
Another famous legend of Himeji castle is a ghost story. Once the servant named Okiku found out about one guy's evil plan to kill the lord of the castle. She saved the lord but the evil guy discovered that it was her fault that he didn't succeed. He took a revenge on her stealing purposely one of the treasure dishes. The girl was tortured to death on the charge of missing dish. Since then the ghost appears in the castle... from time to time.
While leaving the castle I've noticed a bunch of people gardening around. I guess it's worth to mention that the best time to see Himeji, just like any other place in Japan is the month of April, which is the time of cherry blossom. It's also good to know that the castle is going to be partly restored from now on until 2014.(This is one of over 30 posts, which I accidentally deleted one day in January. Luckily, I was able to recover them thanks to the backup done by DanielSan! It's a pity that the comments are gone but someting is better than nothing.)
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