This old gate at Kumamoto Castle looks like it has "a lot of carbon scoring". Kumamoto Castle had 49 turret towers, 18 tower gates and 29 regular castle gates. The castle survived the Edo period without falling victim to fire or natural disasters, but in 1877, just before the start of the Satsuma rebellion, an accidental fire did break out that gutted the main keep, the palace and other important structures. Then in February of that same year, a rebel army from Satsuma (Kagoshima Prefecture), led by Saigō Takamori, laid siege to the castle for nearly two months. The castle was defended by the Imperial Japanese Army and withheld the siege, but more buildings were destroyed during the fighting. Today's castle tower is a fero-concrete reconstruction, but the honmaru goten (palace) was rebuilt using traditional material and opened in 1998.

These are previously un-posted photos of Kumamoto and its beautiful castle, which is now seriously damaged due to the two major earthquakes that struck on April 14 and 16, 2016 along with the numerous strong aftershocks. It is heart-wrenching to see what is happening to the city, its people and the castle. . When I visited Kumamoto in Feb 2013, I was lucky to have an amazingly rich blue sky to provide a nice background for my external photos. Most of the photos here showcase the sloping wall style that was employed by Katō Kiyomasa, the daimyō who first built this castle. He really was a master castle builder, and the Hosokawa, who received the Katō's 530,000 koku fief after it was repossessed by the shogunate in 1632, inherited one heck of a gorgeous and very formidable castle. To put it in perspective, the grounds of the castle were a massive 980,000 square meters, and its perimeters covered an area out to 5.3 km. There were 49 turret towers, 18 tower gates and 29 regular castle gates. The castle survived the Edo period without falling victim to fire or natural disasters, but in 1877, just before the start of the Satsuma rebellion, an accidental fire did break out that gutted the main keep, the palace and other important structures. Then in February of that same year, a rebel army from Satsuma (Kagoshima Prefecture), led by Saigō Takamori, laid siege to the castle for nearly two months. The castle was defended by the Imperial Japanese Army and withheld the siege, but more buildings were destroyed during the fighting. Today's castle is a fero-concrete reconstruction, but the honmaru goten (palace) was rebuilt using traditional material and opened in 1998.