Hiroshima Castle, also called the Carp Castle, is a good example of a Japanese castle built on a plain in the centre of a city, as opposed to hilltop and mountaintop castles. It is not far from the Peace Park featured in my last post.
The castle’s main keep is five storeys tall, and its grounds are surrounded by a moat. Also within the castle’s precincts are a shrine, some ruins and a few reconstructed buildings of the Ninomaru, the second circle of defence.
Built in 1589 by the powerful feudal lord Mori Terumoto, Hiroshima Castle was an important seat of power in western Japan. While it was spared the demolition that many other castles faced during the Meiji Period, it was destroyed by the atomic bomb in 1945 along with the rest of the city.
In 1958 the castle’s main keep was rebuilt in ferro-concrete with an attractive, partially wooden exterior. More recently, the main gate and two turrets of the Ninomaru were reconstructed using original building methods and materials. Inside the keep is an informative museum on Hiroshima’s and the castle’s history and Japanese castles in general. Panoramic views of the surrounding city can be enjoyed from the top floor.