Hikone

 On April first we began our week-long vacation with previously mentioned good friends Alan and Krista.  The journey starts in Hikone, a smaller city with one of those original castles.  More of the castle is original than Inuyama's, where only the main keep (castle building) is original.  In Hikone, much of the defense structures are also original stone.  It's magnificent to behold; here I will try to give you a glimpse of the majesty.

First, let me introduce Hikonyan.  He is the mascot of Hikone (each city has one) and my favorite so far.  To the left, he is doing his signature jump.  Hmm, a cat who does ballet in a samurai helmet?  Hard to see why I love him.
  

It amuses me to think of Hikonyan as the cat samurai version of this samurai to the right.  The statue is placed near the train station, continuing the trend I've observed so far of placing each city's great warlord statue in the vicinity of the train station.  However, this warlord was also a scholar, someone who valued learning as well as fighting skill.  His name is Ii Naomasa and he lived from 1561-1602, which is only 41 years.  He practiced bunburyoudou as a child, which means he studied both literary and martial arts.    He valued physical and mental prowess equally, which was rare for the time and I would suggest also rare today.  He lead his troops to several victories for Tokugawa Ieyasu, in battles where they far outpaced their compatriots.  His two sons, Ii Naokatsu and Ii Naotaka, both worked on Hikone castle after their father's death, and each lead parts of the family for many years.  They were both considered to be great leaders and fighters, like their father.

Here is a view of part of the defense structure of the main keep.  This is inside the main moat and surrounding walls.  If enemies had managed to get this far, the wooden bridge in the picture was meant to be easily burned, sealing off the main castle grounds again.  Then the enemies would have to climb the walls around arrows, rifles, and spears to get inside.  Then if they get inside, there's still the extremely steep and slippery stairs to climb to get to anyone important, like the Lord of the castle.  I think this demonstrates exactly how paranoid the Japanese people are when it comes to intruders.  This mindset definitely still prevails today in some ways.  Perhaps because of all this planning and evading, not many castles were taken in actual battles.  It seems that most transfers of power were done after wars fought at remote battlefields decided new rulers or ruling structures for Japan (like Tokugawa to the Meiji Restoration).

Here is the main keep of Hikone castle.  I think it's a very impressive castle.

The first thing you see when you walk in is this room, with natural wood beams.  The ceiling beams were picked because of their strength and natural curving shape.  The whole castle is built with this aesthetic in mind, which makes it even more awe-inspiring than a "regular" castle.

We made our way up countless steep staircases to the tip-top of the castle.  It didn't have a balcony like Inuyama, so the views weren't as pretty, but the rooftop work was clear and stunning.  Here the intricate work is visible, showing off the circular family crest.

 After walking the castle proper and its guard towers, we ventured into the gardens.  They were beautiful, filled with sunlight and bridges.  Below is a striking picture.  The castle perches on the highest point, towering over the gardens and what was once accommodations for castle workers.  It is a strong reminder of who is in charge of the area, and also reinforces the defensibility of the castle itself.  

In this picture, the building in the foreground is the tea house.  It has a traditional thatched roof, something we saw a lot of in our travels to a more southern part of Japan.  The thatch is not common in Gifu city, although it is still the way people do rooftops in particularly snowy parts of the prefecture.

Surrounding the tea house is a large pond.  Many bridges span it at various points, creating points to stop and gaze at idyllic scenes.  The Japanese, as later posts will make clear, are second to none when it comes to arranging gardens.

As we traversed the many bridges that spanned water, we came across one that stood apart from the water.  There was no clear reason for there to be a bridge: there was no water, and it didn't connect any buildings.  It sort of connected two hills, and a path ran underneath it.  Alan's friend Steve, who was visiting from America, decided to play the troll under the bridge.  I am the damsel in distress?  It was just too funny to pass up.