Visiting Kumamoto Castle Park/Carlos Pueblo

Visiting Kumamoto Castle Park/Carlos Pueblo

Kumamoto Castle was damaged by earthquake in 2016 and nearly all Japanese

friends all over the world had confirmed such news to me in order to prepare

myself that I could not enter the Castle due to the reconstruction, yet I still wanted

to go. It is one of the three premier Castles in Japan after Himeji Castle and

Matsumoto Castle. We marched toward the Castle through downtown after passing

through the Chikugo River with the peak of cherry blossom on the river banks, school

yard, and street sides if there is land possible. There were beautiful and amazing.

After the downtown is the entrance of the hilltop Castle.

We followed the direction of the reconstruction worker marching up toward the keep,

Tensukaku the tallest building of the Castle which was under repair at the time. I

stopped often for the spring flowers blooming all over. We entered a Prefecture Museum

to visit a live working room of silk kimono, the traditional lady dress especially for the

youth. We also saw woodcraft and dolls. Back to the hill, we were attracted by the

cherry blossom on the ground and skipped to get close to the view point of the Keep.

An agricultural station is on the street with an attractive willow shape cherry tree in

blooming. I took some shots for remembrance. The reconstruction authority put the

collapse stones in good order with mark on each in order to rebuild the wall in a near

future.

We kept on going outside of the Castle toward a baseball stadium. There is another

shrine in front of it with several blooming cherry trees. A class of high school boys

were in a physical education class in baseball uniform while inside the stadium, there

was a real game going on. I met a lovely dog with the same figure with Akita, the one

famous in the movie Hachiko. The owner tells me that he is a Shiro, means Castle. He

was very friendly to me and really made my day. We kept on walking toward the

entrance of the Castle gate. People were crowded on a path with both sides of cherry

blossom busing in taking photos. I could see the corner building with damaged wall

on our way in. We walked along with the moat toward the keep, Tenshukaku and

entered to the view point and a court yard of a shrine. It is very closed to the two lovely

building, one damaged and one was fine. It is a remaining of Japanese history. It was

built at the middle of 15 century and expanded at the beginning of 17^th century by Kato

and became an Azuchi-Momoyama style castle. I like to point it out for my readers that

you may be like me interested to this war period of Japan. Kato was a subordinate to

Toyotomi while Toyotomi was under Oda. Oda’s Azuchi Castle was burn down and never

been rebuilt and Toyotomi built the Osaka Castle based on Azuchi design. In Japanese

history, it is called Azuchi-Momoyama Period to the almost unified time before Tokugawa’s

Edo Period. I just learn that Edo Castle is also a product of Kato’s.