Hikone Castle - Climbing Stone Walls: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 16:03, 14 June 2020

The main objective of my 2019 revisit of Hikone Castle was to better see and document these stone walls (Nobori Ishigaki) first hand. They are a unique feature that is only seen at a few castles (Sumoto Castle, Iyo Matsuyama Castle, Takatori Castle, some "wajo" - Japanese castle in Korea) today and

Hikone Castle - Climbing Stone Walls

The main objective of my 2019 revisit of Hikone Castle was to better see and document these stone walls (Nobori Ishigaki) first hand.

They are a unique feature that is only seen at a few castles (Sumoto Castle, Iyo Matsuyama Castle, Takatori Castle, some "wajo" - Japanese castle in Korea) today and may be overlooked by most visitors. Hikone Castle has probably the best such walls and with 5 of them, certainly the most. Typically stone walls run horizontally fortifying around the base of baileys but these run vertically up the mountain preventing attackers from accessing the castle at a different point and crossing the side of the mountain to get to the more vital areas. If you look at the map below you'll see how the 5 stone walls further section off the palace and honmaru areas. Of the 5 walls, numbers 1-4 in the photo below are accessible and can be seen in the photos below.

Gallery

Stone wall #1

Stone wall #2

Stone wall #3

Stone wall #4

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Feature Pages

Sawaguchi Tamon Yagura Special Exhibit

Genkyuen Garden

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 |CastleSubpageText=The main objective of my 2019 revisit of Hikone Castle was to better see and document these stone walls (Nobori Ishigaki) first hand.
-The "climbing stone walls" of Hikone Castle are something I wanted to highlight separately from the other photos. They are a unique feature that is only seen at a few castles (Sumoto Castle, Iyo Matsuyama Castle, Takatori Castle, some "wajo" - Japanese castle in Korea) today and may be overlooked by most visitors. Hikone Castle has probably the best such walls and with 5 of them, certainly the most. Typically stone walls run horizontally fortifying around the base of baileys but these run vertically up the mountain preventing attackers from accessing the castle at a different point and crossing the side of the mountain to get to the more vital areas. If you look at the map below you'll see how the 5 stone walls further section off the palace and honmaru areas. Of the 5 walls, numbers 1-4 in the photo below are accessible and can be seen in the photos below.
+They are a unique feature that is only seen at a few castles (Sumoto Castle, Iyo Matsuyama Castle, Takatori Castle, some "wajo" - Japanese castle in Korea) today and may be overlooked by most visitors. Hikone Castle has probably the best such walls and with 5 of them, certainly the most. Typically stone walls run horizontally fortifying around the base of baileys but these run vertically up the mountain preventing attackers from accessing the castle at a different point and crossing the side of the mountain to get to the more vital areas. If you look at the map below you'll see how the 5 stone walls further section off the palace and honmaru areas. Of the 5 walls, numbers 1-4 in the photo below are accessible and can be seen in the photos below.
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