Inuyama

On 3/17, Matt, Nik and I journeyed to Inuyama (dog mountain).  The castle there is one of twelve castles still in its original state, aka not destroyed by WWII bombings or the Japanese themselves.  It was built in 1537 by Oda Yojirou Nobuyasu, an uncle of Gifu's own warlord, Oda Nobunaga.  It changed hands many times over the centuries, and was crucial in the fight against Tokugawa Ieyasu, who if you'll remember was from Okazaki, and won the fight to unify Japan.  In 1871, during the Meiji period, the government took control of the castle.  Most of the surrounding buildings were torn down, so the gate and watch towers are newer recreations completed in 1965.  However, the central building is original, and the oldest standing castle in Japan.  The authenticity of the building can't be reproduced; I had such a different feeling when exploring this castle as compared to any castle previous.  It is scary, awe-inspiring, and flawed in ways the others aren't.  For example, the lord's bedroom is still intact, complete with ornate tatami.  There are raised wooden tracks between every room, where sliding doors once sat.  There are guard turrets and slatted windows where archers once sat.  And of course, there are the stairs.          

The stairs were terrifying.  I'm not sure the angle of steepness is visible from the picture to the right, where you can see two staircases descending one after another through the many floors of the castle.  To enter the castle, one must climb up a very ladder-like staircase before getting to any kind of room.  These people were all about defense, not offense, because I can't imagine anyone getting out of this place quickly.  I see many Japanese people scurry around every day (the scurry is the national walk, it shows you are hurried and trying hard to work and get places quickly to take care of business), and when I imagined servants and warriors scurrying up and down these stairs to get things done for their lord, I got queasy.  We were given slippers to wear in the castle, and on the way down the stairs I took them off, because they are very slippery and like to fall off my feet.  It didn't help much, considering socks on this old wood are pretty deadly too.  I think we climbed up and down five sets of ladder-stairs.  We made it, in one piece!  Below is a picture of us from the top of the castle.  It was a very windy, yet gorgeously clear, day.  Nothing blew off the top of the castle, although the wind did try its best to confiscate my scarf.

I took the picture above on the way up, through one of the windows.  I loved the windows so much.  The craftsmanship on them is amazing.  This one is different from the slatted ones where archers could sit and fire through at the courtyard.  It is more decorative and since it faces the giant river (Kisogawa), possibly the architects were less concerned with defense.


I took this picture from the castle balcony, or walkway, at the very top.  On the right side of the water is Aichi prefecture, and on the left side of the water is Gifu prefecture, where we came from.  It's really a remarkable view, especially on such a clear day.  We could see downtown Nagoya and downtown Gifu!



This is one side of the shrine gates at the bottom of the hill on which the castle sits.  The shrine's name is Sankou-Inari.  The first word means "three lights" and the second references an ancient fox God/Goddess of rice harvests.  It had all sorts of statues of foxes.  The statues are very cute and look like a mixture of fox-wolf-dog.  The shrine had recently undergone a repainting, so the red color shone in the sun.

Before leaving we stopped in at a wonderful little place for a late lunch.  We each got the same set menu: soup, rice with pickled vegetables, seasoned daikon, and miso tofu sticks.  Apparently it was all gluten-free naturally.  They didn't have to do anything special to make me a lunch, so for the first time I got to eat everything as it was intended.  Oishikatta!  It was delicous!  Also, it was vegetarian and likely vegan, so it's a good, and unusual, find all the way around.  I don't have a picture, but on the way to the castle, we found a dessert shop that sold mochi and various bean sweets.  Most of those were wheat-free, too, so I bought a few and ate them much later, after a Gifu onsen visit.  Amazing!  I love Inuyama.