The Japanese castles were designed to surprise attackers with many traps, from entrapment spaces such as masugata, to hidden ishi-otoshi, unnoticeable openings used to throw stones or hot oil. The Matsue castle features another surprise, it has an entire floor hidden by the architecture. As you can see in the photo, the castle seems to have five floors, while in fact it has six…

Matsue Castle, Matsue, Shimane

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Yesterday’s Japan Photo: Traditional restaurant in Asakusa, Tokyo