Japanese traditional architecture, the last tower of Tsuruga Castle

After it was conquered by the Imperial Army at the end of the Boshin War, Tsuruga-jo, the castle from Aizu-Wakamatsu was demolished by the order of the Emperor in 1874.

But one of the castle's towers (yagura), called Osangai, was moved inside a small temple, Amida-ji and thus it was preserved until today in its original form. Fortunately for us, because this small tower is a very interesting piece of Japanese traditional architecture: from the outside, Osangai looks like a 3-storey building, but... in fact there are 4 storeys inside!

Between the second and the third floor there's a low-roof room (which was used by the daimyo for secret meetings) with a simple but effective security system: the stairs can be retracted, so the room was unreachable for as long as its occupant desired.

An architectonic jewel, equally valuable as the original surviving Japanese castles...