Comments log

This is a log of comments.

18:01, 14 December 2023 ART talk contribs posted a new comment on Kokura Castle (Added the daimyo villa Goyusho)
09:29, 12 December 2023 23.242.5.16 talk posted a new comment on Kagoshima Castle (Could you please provide an ancient silk drawing, later woodprint, modern painting, or at least an artist's sketch of how the castle looked when it was built in 1601 (or a little later)? We need this to describe it in our literary and historic writings about Japan. Thank you!)
07:45, 6 December 2023 ART talk contribs posted a new comment on Iga Ueno Castle (Great find!)
16:02, 5 December 2023 Matthew Ward talk contribs posted a new comment on Iga Ueno Castle (I did some reading about this castle the other day, and realized that there is actually one extant building remaining: the armory. It's on the ground of the local high-school, which is part of the former castle grounds. Here is one of the articles I found that explains it: https://mieoutsiderblog.seesaa.net/article/%E3%81%8A%E3%81%A3%E3%81%8B%E3%81%AA%E3%81%B3%E3%81%A3%E3%81%8F%E3%82%8A%E3%80%80%E9%AB%98%E6%A0%A1%E3%81%AB%E6%AD%A6%E5%99%A8%E5%BA%AB%EF%BC%81%EF%BC%9F%E3%80%80%E7%8F%BE%E5%A...)
13:20, 5 December 2023 Matthew Ward talk contribs posted a new comment on Okayama Castle (I've been to this castle a couple of times. I love the views of it from the river and from Koraku-en. The main keep is also pretty unique in its design. I liked the extant Tsukimi Yagura and the reconstructed gates. My main quibble with this castle is that it's another one that's kind of a shadow of its former self in terms of remaining area: a lot of the former castle grounds have been heavily built-over. I'll give it 4-stars based on my last visit, but looks like they have refurbished...)
09:28, 5 December 2023 Eric talk contribs posted a new comment on Osaka Castle (Thanks! I'll go too!)
08:38, 5 December 2023 ART talk contribs posted a new comment on Saga Castle (Updated gallery with new photos, descriptions and co-ordinates.)
19:20, 4 December 2023 ART talk contribs posted a new comment on Tojo Castle (Updated, including gallery updates of site today.)
08:58, 4 December 2023 ART talk contribs posted a new comment on Tojo Castle (as for the yellow designation... since there's still some palings and kabukimon, maybe it can remain? technically the only building on site is the toilets, but this koya does have a 'sengoku style' to it...)
08:57, 4 December 2023 ART talk contribs posted a new comment on Tojo Castle (So I went down again. Sadly the yaguramon and miyagura are both gone. The koguchi now has only a new sign, and the miyagura has the old sign but with only the foundation stumps remaining. There's still some babousaku (cheval de frise) around the site though, and a pair of kabukimon. This time I checked out the whole ruins and all of the earthworks though, so it was worth going back. It's still a nice site and is well maintained for the most part.)
09:10, 3 December 2023 Matthew Ward talk contribs posted a new comment on Osaka Castle (Some exciting news for Osaka Castle fans: next year, as part of the usual special turret openings (spring, summer, fall), the Inui Yagura will be opened, apparently for the first time in about 10 years. I have never been in the Inui Yagura, so I'm very excited. In addition, as usual the Sengan Yagura and Tamon complex (the gatehouse and the Tamon turret it connects to) will be opened as usual.)
09:07, 3 December 2023 Matthew Ward talk contribs posted a new comment on Osaka Castle (I saw the pictures of the renovated karamon on this site's FB page. I visited Chikubushima before the renovation, and was really impressed by how beautiful it looks now! Anyway, it's definitely nice to have some relics of the original Osaka Castle to see.)
14:19, 30 November 2023 Matthew Ward talk contribs posted a new comment on Kakegawa Castle (Thanks! I definitely saw the dorui in the 4th picture. Next time, I'll have to look for the great trench too.)
08:10, 30 November 2023 ART talk contribs posted a new comment on Kakegawa Castle (The mausoleum site you mentioned is on the grounds of the ruins of Kakegawa 'Old' Castle. Profile here: https://jcastle.info/view/Kakegawako_Castle)
19:04, 29 November 2023 Matthew Ward talk contribs posted a new comment on Kakegawa Castle (I finally visited Kakegawa Castle the day before yesterday, and really loved it! I got there mid-morning and thought maybe I'd have enough time to see Hamamatsu Castle too before heading back to Kansai, but as it turned out, Kakegawa Castle kept me very occupied for the whole day. The best part of it was the palace, which is incredible and has to be one of the best surviving castle buildings in Japan. And the combination of that and the beautifully and authentically restored main keep a...)
12:32, 26 November 2023 Matthew Ward talk contribs posted a new comment on Hikone Castle (I could gush about Hikone Castle endlessly, but another thing that occurs to me: there is so much of the castle remaining outside of the inner moat. Obvious things are the Ninomaru Sawachiguchi Tamon Yagura, the stable, Genkyuen Gardens, and Keyaki Palace, but there are also so many sections of moat, ishigaki, turret and gate foundations, etc. It really is a big and impressive space. Lonely Planet describe the castle as 'small,' obviously referring to the keep only (which is more like m...)
02:58, 20 November 2023 ART talk contribs posted a new comment on Omi Hachiman Castle (If i feel the need to respond to your comments i am, of course, at liberty to do so. But i'll leave off with the tit-for-tat and just provide some clarification here on my own contributions to this grassroots encyclopedia of ours, as you have brought them up, so i'll suppose it's of interest. It is indeed the case that most medieval fortified residence sites no longer have any observable ruins. Many have been put to plough or otherwise developed over. About a third of the sites i have contr...)
20:55, 19 November 2023 RaymondW talk contribs posted a new comment on Omi Hachiman Castle (ART, I stand in awe of your powers of intuitive deduction from a mere two comments from the hundreds of comments that I have posted on JCastle. You’re a real Sherlock in the making. What you have said about me can also applies to yourself. It’s very much a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Putting my ART-Sherlock hat on… You said that I scoff at other castle fans not knowing what I know about some castles. Well, the same applies for you too, mate. You have posted multiple times brag...)
14:39, 15 November 2023 ART talk contribs posted a new comment on Tojo Castle (I'm planning to go and check the condition of this site soonish, so will let you chaps know how it is now.)
18:38, 13 November 2023 ART talk contribs posted a new comment on Kameyama Castle (I have embossed the gallery with some more recent pictures showing the renovated yagura, and some other stuff like earthworks and surrounding architecture.)
08:43, 13 November 2023 ART talk contribs posted a new comment on Omi Hachiman Castle (You may characterise Chris's comment as 'incorrect' if you like, but i'd say it was trivially inconsequential. Since you ask, buddy, i will note that this isn't the first time that you have responded to that poster's comments in our group by writing a comment on this website. At that time - let's call it recently - it was on the profile for Wakayama Castle, should you like to re-read it, and i rank-ordered what i thought the purposes of your comment were. Here's what i got: 1. To scoff...)
21:11, 12 November 2023 RaymondW talk contribs posted a new comment on Takano Yakata (No worries, mate. Good to see the update on the profile with “community taxis” replacing “the 2.5 hour walk.”)
21:08, 12 November 2023 RaymondW talk contribs posted a new comment on Omi Hachiman Castle (Pure paranoia, mate. Conversely, why are you rushing to defend an incorrect comment that you did not originally post?)
06:59, 12 November 2023 ART talk contribs posted a new comment on Takano Yakata (Thank you for your suggestion.)
06:44, 12 November 2023 ART talk contribs posted a new comment on Omi Hachiman Castle (I just didn't think it was a big deal, chum. But I'll eat my old hat if that wasn't the main motivation for your recent comment ~_0)
18:46, 11 November 2023 RaymondW talk contribs posted a new comment on Takano Yakata (I visited this this fortified yakata ruin in 2016 with my wife. It is worth visiting for keen castle fans to see its ishigaki remnants. Nearby Eigenji Temple is one of the top spots for autumnal foliage in Shiga. It also has some old ishigaki to behold as you make your way up to the temple. For those who don’t have a (rental) car and don’t fancy walking the impractical 2.5 hours one-way from Yōkaichi Station as suggested by the profile writer, there is another option of catching “community ta...)
18:34, 11 November 2023 RaymondW talk contribs posted a new comment on Kumamoto Castle (I was lucky enough to visit this castle four times between 2007 and 2012, before the earthquake in 2016. At the Himeji Castle Expo 2023, I chatted with one of the staff at the Kumamoto Castle booth about its restoration after the earthquake. The huge Uto Yagura (Uto Watchtower), in name only but actually is the size of a castle keep and considered by some people as the Third Keep of Kumamoto Castle, will take 10 years to repair. Wow, that’s much longer than it took to repair and re-roof the m...)
23:39, 10 November 2023 RaymondW talk contribs posted a new comment on Omi Hachiman Castle (Hmmm…who cares? (Lol) Mate, you obviously care enough to try defending the indefensible and even decided to name the castle fan who posted that inaccurate comment on your forum. Based on your understanding of “recent / recently” so when someone says, “I visited Omi-Hachiman Castle recently.” you would then interpret that to mean that person visited Omi-Hachiman Castle sometime in the last few years or even longer because Omi-Hachiman Castle has been around for hundreds of years. I reckon mos...)
12:35, 9 November 2023 ART talk contribs posted a new comment on Kasumi Castle ((Added Ohte Koguchi Ishigaki to gallery with co-ords.) Kasumijō is a yamajiro (mountaintop castle) ruin in Ômuro village of Matsushiro Township, Nagano Municipality. It's well known amongst fans of castle ruins in Nagano. It is on the tip of a mountain frond, so the elvation is that of a hill, easy to climb, and the site is chock-full of ishigaki (stone-piled ramparts). Seeing so much ishigaki from this time period - the Sengoku - is quite rare, so it's a highly recommended site for castle...)
11:06, 9 November 2023 ART talk contribs posted a new comment on Kasumi Castle (The Ohte complex at this site is really fantastic. I recently re-visited. Will add a pic or two later...)
09:02, 6 November 2023 ART talk contribs posted a new comment on Omi Hachiman Castle (You must be talking about Chris's recent post on our little FB group. Of course, I say it was a 'recent' post, but maybe, being already over a week ago, it's old hat. 'Recent' being a relative term an' all. I think 'recent' could refer to any time in the last few years, especially given the time scale of castles is centuries. But who cares?)
20:07, 5 November 2023 RaymondW talk contribs posted a new comment on Omi Hachiman Castle (Matthew, if you revisit Omi-Hachiman also be sure to also head up to the Demaru Bailey of Omi-Hachiman Castle for some panoramic views of the surrounding area. Since all the undergrowth and trees have been cleared from the Demaru Bailey for at least 2.5 years and the ishigaki revealed in its full glory, you can clearly see the surrounding mountains where half a dozen of Rokkaku Clan’s yamajiros are located. I was up at Omi-Hachiman Castle’s Demaru in April and May 2021 checking out the cleare...)
19:55, 5 November 2023 RaymondW talk contribs posted a new comment on Osaka Castle (I went to Chikubushima (Lake Biwa, Shiga) in early October to check out some relocated structures from Hideyoshi’s Osaka Castle, following in the JCastle Shogun’s (Eric’s) footsteps. I’m sure in time he’ll update the Osaka Castle profile with photos that he’s already shared on his JCastle FB. It was a real pleasure to be able to walk on and be surrounded by a piece of little-known Sengoku castle history, the relocated elements of the Gokuraku Bridge from Hideyoshi’s Osaka Castle. This bridg...)
14:23, 2 November 2023 ART talk contribs posted a new comment on Nagashino Castle (Nagashinojō is a medieval hirajiro (flatland castle) site in Nagashino Township, Shinshiro Municipality. Ruins feature earthworks such as dorui (earthen ramparts) and karabori (dry moats). The dorui and karabori protecting the main bailey are large and impressive. Nagashinojō is essentially wedge-shaped, built between a river and a deep creek. Moats and embankments were cut and piled between these natural barriers to create the castle. As the castle expanded, more fortifications were built on...)
06:25, 1 November 2023 ART talk contribs posted a new comment on Kameyama Battery (Hey, Anon. Glad you liked the article. It was actually 50 wounded and only 12 killed, according to the wikipedia article on the 'Shimonoseki campaign'. I didn't mention the Japanese casualities... But of those 47 you mentioned, apparently 18 were killed and 29 wounded.)
01:45, 1 November 2023 71.105.239.189 talk posted a new comment on Kameyama Battery (Nice article. Do you know how many men was used on the Choshu / Allied side? (in sea). Also, the 72 casualties on the allied side, were they all deaths? What about the 47 for Choshu domain? do you know statistics for deaths or wounded on both sides? thanks.)
21:17, 29 October 2023 RaymondW talk contribs posted a new comment on Zakimi Castle (My wife and I made our first visit to Zakimi Castle in 2022. We went again earlier this year. Zakimi Castle was the last of the World Heritage Ryukyuan castles that we visited. Like the other four World Heritage castles in Okinawa, Zakimi Castle is certainly worthy of this designation. The castle consists of just two baileys. On our first visit, we only spent 2.5 hours on site for both the gusuku and Yuntanza Museum (local history and culture museum) as we had two more gusukus to visit after...)
12:23, 27 October 2023 Matthew Ward talk contribs posted a new comment on Omi Hachiman Castle (I will definitely revisit Omi-Hachiman, just because I love the town. And I'll be sure to check out the kyokan.)
21:32, 26 October 2023 Eric talk contribs deleted comment #2101 on Sonobe Castle
08:16, 26 October 2023 170.173.0.16 talk posted a new comment on Sumoto Castle (im not sure who you are, but my Aunt is Tokushima Inada and still alive)
13:37, 25 October 2023 Matthew Ward talk contribs posted a new comment on Takayama Jin'ya (Checking out the article about Takayama Castle on this site made me wonder if we had seen Takayama-jin'ya as well when we visited 22 years ago. The weird thing is, I had no memory of it, but last night I found an old letter which describes the visit, and then it all came rushing back. Quite a thrill to have a memory suddenly restored, in fairly vivid detail. And it was a place I had loved: the letter spends more time on describing it than anything else in the town. I think that it ma...)
13:29, 25 October 2023 Matthew Ward talk contribs posted a new comment on Takayama Castle (Hida) (I went to Takayama 22 years ago with my wife. I had originally forgotten most of what we saw there, but this site has helped me remember. We did go see the castle ruins, but as stated elsewhere here, there isn't a lot to see: just the ishigaki you see in the picture above. Safe to say that the castle ruins are not what one comes to Takayama to see, but rather all of the other historical buildings, including Takayama Jin'ya. But castle fans will want to check out these ruins, unless they...)
17:34, 23 October 2023 Eric talk contribs deleted comment #1215 on Chihaya Castle
17:43, 22 October 2023 122.211.145.154 talk posted a new comment on Chihaya Castle (A bit off-topic, but I just noticed 'the Castle Stamp' is located inside the Matsumasa Restaurant. Matsumasa is my wife (and kid's) surname . Very rare (I didn't let her change it when we got married). It's hard to find anything or anyone who isn't related to her named Matsumasa. I'll have to try to check the restaurant out!)
18:11, 20 October 2023 Matthew Ward talk contribs posted a new comment on Fukuyama Castle (I finally visited Fukuyama Castle yesterday, and it mostly exceeded my expectations, which major castles often do. Obviously, the cluster of extant historical buildings in the southeast corner of the Honmaru is the star of the show, especially the Fushimi Yagura. I just wish they would open the interior to visitors. And the Sujigane Gate and bell tower are quite nice too. Obviously, the castle (at least, the Honmaru has some excellent ishigaki as well. As for the reconstructions, the t...)
22:52, 18 October 2023 RaymondW talk contribs posted a new comment on Hikone Castle (Hikone Castle is my most-visited castle as I have been dozens of times, but I never get tired of enjoying this magnificent castle. I went to Hikone Castle during the hot summer. It was a day when the mercury topped 36C in the afternoon. Naturally, I went in the morning, but unlike my previous visit in March, I decided to spend less time walking around the castle and cooled off in the reconstructed part of the Sawaguchitamonyagura before walking back to the train station. While cooling off in...)
09:36, 16 October 2023 Matthew Ward talk contribs posted a new comment on Nijo Castle (Oddly, I can't remember no photography rules inside most castle buildings that I have entered. Maybe it's just the castles I have gone to. I haven't been to Fukuyama yet, though I hope to go soon. Too bad that they don't allow people to enter the Fushimi Turret most of the time, as it presumably has a lot of historical atmosphere. I don't really mind not being able to photograph inside concrete keep reconstructions, but wooden buildings are another story. Anyway, getting back to Nijo Cas...)
12:53, 11 October 2023 Matthew Ward talk contribs posted a new comment on Innoshima Suigun Castle (This is a cute little mogi, but doesn't feel like a real castle to me. The best point was the museum.)
12:50, 11 October 2023 Matthew Ward talk contribs posted a new comment on Gifu Castle (I think I need to spent some time getting more familiar with the nuance of the various Japanese words that can be translated as 'reconstructed.')
22:27, 9 October 2023 126.166.164.96 talk posted a new comment on Motosu Castle (I recently hiked aokigahara, east of the .outline ruins, across route 139, and throughout the forest, I noticed several stone circles, about 5 feet in diameter, sunk in the ground, with a small opening, im guessing as an entrance. The walls are maybe a foot tall. The furthest circle was about 1.5 miles east of the post office.. Could these possibly be used as foundations for structures associated with the castle? They seemed to be alone - no other formations or ruins near them. Very interesting!)