JAPAN | Himeji Castle – Trip By Trip

Autumn 2025. We – Sam and Danny, Michel and Wille, and Timothy – are travelling to Japan for a quite classic tour of the Land of the Rising Sun. We are flying separately as we used miles. On the planning: Tokyo, Kanazawa, Shirakawa, Osaka, and Expo 2025, Hiroshima, Himeji, Miyajima, Kyoto, Nara, Nagoya, Hakone, and back to Tokyo. Three weeks plus some extra days.

What is far away, really? We would think twice over a two-hour single journey for a (half) day trip, but in Japan we rode two hours to visit Himeji and specifically its castle.

Himeji Castle

Himeji Castle (姫路城, Himeji-jō) is a hilltop castle complex located in the city of Himeji in Hyōgo Prefecture. Widely regarded as the finest surviving example of traditional Japanese castle architecture, it is celebrated for its elegant white appearance and sophisticated defensive design.

The castle comprises a network of 83 buildings featuring an array of ingenious defensive systems developed during Japan’s feudal period. Owing to its brilliant white plastered walls, it is often nicknamed Hakuro-jō or Shirasagi-jō, meaning ‘White Egret Castle‘ or ‘White Heron Castle‘, for its resemblance to a graceful bird taking flight.

The castle’s origins date to 1333, when Akamatsu Norimura built a small fort on Himeyama Hill. This fort was replaced in 1346 by Himeyama Castle, and later remodelled into Himeji Castle during the 16th century.

In 1581, Toyotomi Hideyoshi added a three-storey keep, expanding its scale and fortifications. Following the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, Tokugawa Ieyasu granted the castle to his son-in-law Ikeda Terumasa, who completely rebuilt and enlarged it between 1601 and 1609, creating the castle complex largely as it stands today.

Additional buildings were constructed in 1617–1618 by Honda Tadamasa, including a tower for Princess Sen (Senhime), known as the keshō yagura or ‘Dressing Tower‘.

For almost seven centuries, Himeji Castle has survived virtually intact. It withstood the bombing of Himeji during World War II, when much of the surrounding city was destroyed, and it remained largely undamaged during the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995.

Himeji Castle is Japan’s largest and most visited castle. In 1993, it was inscribed as one of the country’s first UNESCO World Heritage Sites, recognised for its outstanding universal value as a cultural property.

Five of its structures—the main keep and three smaller keeps, together with a series of connecting corridors and the kitchen—are designated National Treasures of Japan, while the area within its middle moat is a Special Historic Site.

The castle was extensively restored between 2010 and 2015, when the roof and plaster walls were cleaned and repaired, returning them to their original brilliant white colour. It reopened to the public on 27 March 2015.

Himeji Castle exemplifies the hirayama (hilltop) style of Japanese castle design. Built primarily of wood, stone, tile, and plaster, the complex covers an area of 233 hectares and includes a maze-like series of gates, walls, and courtyards designed to confuse attackers.

Loopholes of various shapes were used for firing arrows and guns, and ‘stone-drop windows’ allowed defenders to drop stones or boiling oil on enemies below. The castle’s three concentric moats, one of which remains intact, further strengthened its defences.

At the heart of the complex stands the main keep (daitenshu), a six-storey wooden tower rising 46.4 metres above the ground and 92 metres above sea level. It is joined by three smaller keeps to form a striking cluster of interconnected towers. Inside, the structure includes storage spaces, weapon racks, secret rooms for ambushes, and platforms for observation and defence.

In addition to its architectural significance, Himeji Castle holds an important place in Japanese folklore.

One of the best-known legends is that of Okiku’s Well, associated with the ghost story Banchō Sarayashiki, in which a servant named Okiku is falsely accused of losing precious dishes and is thrown into a well, her ghost doomed to count the missing plates each night. Another legend tells of Osakabehime, a reclusive spirit said to inhabit the castle’s tower, and the tale of the Old Widow’s Stone (Ubagaishi), where a poor woman donates her millstone to aid the castle’s construction.

Himeji Castle has also featured prominently in popular culture. It appeared in the James Bond film ‘You Only Live Twice‘ (1967), Akira Kurosawa’s ‘Kagemusha‘ (1980) and ‘Ran‘ (1985), and the television miniseries ‘Shōgun‘ (1980). The castle has been recreated in several video games, including ‘Civilization V‘ and ‘Forge of Empires‘, and in 2023, LEGO released a 2,125-piece model of the castle in its Lego Architecture Series.