Himeji Castle - Oremawari Yagura Limited Exhibition

From Jcastle.info

The Summer 2023 special exhibit for Himeji Castle was an extra special exhibit in honor of the 30th anniversary of becoming a World Heritage site. This time, the interiors of the I, Ro and Ha watariyagura's and the Inui and Higashi subkeeps were open at the same time in addition to the Oremawari Yag

Himeji Castle - Oremawari Yagura and Bizen Gate Limited Exhibition

折廻り櫓・備前門の特別公開

The Summer 2023 special exhibit for Himeji Castle was an extra special exhibit in honor of the 30th anniversary of becoming a World Heritage site. This time, the interiors of the I, Ro and Ha watariyagura's and the Inui and Higashi subkeeps were open at the same time in addition to the Oremawari Yagura and Bizen Gate. The Oremawari Yagura and Bizen Gate were recently restored and are showing off their new white plaster. The other parts can be seen in other albums here already.

The Oremawari Yagura and Bizen gate are easily overlooked as small structures that you might not notice after you've visited the magnificent main keep and are on your way out of the Bizen Bailey. The Oremawari Yagura divides the Bizen Bailey from the heavily fortified Karamete entrance of the castle and completes one wall of the masugata box like gate. Defensively, I found this to be the most important insight from visiting the interior of this yagura. From inside you can easily see the entirety of this masugata compound, the He Gate leading up to the main keep compound and the To-no-ichi gate that leads down through the Karamete.

For the interior of these structures, there are a few interesting things to note. The Oremawari Yagura, while bing a critical defensive position, also has a tea room complete with tatami floor, shoji windows and fusuma sliding doors. But, it also has sama! This might be the only extant tea room in the country with sama portholes for shooting guns! The number of sama all along the walls of this yagura illustrates its importance to the defense of the karamete and preventing entrance to the main keep. The Oremawari Yagura is thought to have been considered a part of the Bizen Palace and you will see gold nail coverings and other golden fixtures that contrasts with the rest of the castle structures that are purely defensive/militial in nature.

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