Besides the well known 12 original Japanese castles, there are also a few castles featuring original yagura turrets.

The Kumamoto Castle was awarded by the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu to the warlord Kato Kiyomasa, who afterwards enlarged it, making it the castle with the largest number of buildings.

Besides constructing new buildings, Kato Kiyomasa moved to Kumamoto the entire main tower of the nearby Uto Castle, that originally belonged to Konishi Yukinaga, one of the lords defeated at the Battle of Sekigahara. Thus, the Uto Castle became the Uto yagura of the Kumamoto Castle, and it is today one of the few surviving buildings.

Uto Yagura, Kumamoto Castle, Kumamoto

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Yesterday’s Japan Photo: Japanese traditional architecture, Mokoshi