Nagoya Castle, Osaka Castle, Nijo Castle

I'm very sorry that it's been so long since the last update to Jcastle. I assure you that I've not been idle and have been making the best use of this castle visiting season. In the coming months I'll have 26 castle visits to document, 14 of which are new castles to Jcastle and 19 are new for me per

Nagoya Castle, Osaka Castle, Nijo Castle

2019-3-10

I'm very sorry that it's been so long since the last update to Jcastle. I assure you that I've not been idle and have been making the best use of this castle visiting season. In the coming months I'll have 26 castle visits to document, 14 of which are new castles to Jcastle and 19 are new for me personally. If you're following along on Facebook, most of these have been posted there already, but there's also more to come.

Today's update is not actually about any of these trips but documents some special trips from the last 2 years.

First, I've made a technical update to Jcastle to allow for "photo collections" or "sub albums" of photos. I always have a hard time limiting the photos I want to post to those that will fit on one page. Sometimes extra albums would be useful to subdivide photos and document something different. Future sub-albums may include a collection of photos by season (snow, cherry blossoms, fall colors), night photos, castle interiors or castle towns.

You will find these collections listed after the main gallery as "More galleries and feature pages"

The first use of this new feature is to document the special limited time opening of structures at Osaka Castle, Nagoya Castle, and Nijo Castle. Over the last 2-3 years we've seen a growing trend for castles to open up castle structures that are typically closed to the public for a limited time period. These are usually closed because they simply don't have the staff to guard and maintain them every day and the need to prevent further damage or limit the number of visitors in them at one time for structural reasons.

Along with each of the special viewings listed below, most of the photos for each castle have also been renewed.

Osaka Castle (2017) - it's becoming an annual tradition to open these buildings in the summer

Tamon Yagura Sengan Yagura Enshogura Sanadamaru (not a special viewing but a collection of photos from around the Sanadamaru site) Osaka Castle Night

Nijo Castle (2017) - these 2 structures were open for a limited time to commemorate the restoration work that was completed on the Otemon Gate.

Southeast_Corner_Yagura Southeast Corner Yagura

Nagoya Castle (2018) - the palace is always open but the three yagura below were open for a limited time in the summer after the palace was finished

Honmaru Palace Southwest_Corner_Yagura (permanently open from Nov 2018) Southeast Corner Yagura Corner Yagura