Japanese castle architecture, Sumi Yagura

The main building of a Japanese castle is the keep, tenshu in Japanese, usually erected inside a complex structure made of walls, moats and turrets (yagura). These turrets were built in a variety of architectural styles, and I recently presented the watari yagura style and the yagura-mon.

Today, I would like to show you another beautiful turret, a sumi yagura ("corner turret"). A great example of this style, is the Kumamoto Castle Uto Yagura, an impressive, 5 stories tall structure that survived until today in its original form.