About This Print
View of Himeji Castle with cherry trees in bloom.
Himeji Castle
Himeji-jo (Castle) was originally built in 1346. Throughout its history it was owned by thirteen warrior families, not the least of which was Hashiba (Toyotomi) Hideyoshi, the commoner who rose to become the de facto military dictator of Japan during the Sengoku-jidai (Civil War Era). Lord Hideyoshi reconstructed the castle as a three storied structure in 1581. In 1601, Ikeda Terumasa, son-in-law of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the shogun who defeated the Hideyoshi family, transformed the castle into its present five tiered configuration with three smaller donjons. Unlike many European castles which had no real strategic defenses, Himeji-jo was built for warfare. The walls contain geometrically shaped sama, openings through which archers and gunners shot at attacking troops and ishiotoshi, an opening through which stones or boiling water were dumped on enemy soldiers scaling the wall. Despite its utilitarian purpose, the castle is nevertheless one of the most beautiful in Japan and was designated at UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993.
Print Details
| IHL Catalog | #1416 |
| Title/Description | Himeji Castle 姫路城 Himejijō |
| Series | |
| Artist | Kawanishi Yūzaburō (1923-2014) |
| Signature | Y. Kawanishi  |
| Seal |  |
| Publication Date | undated, like c. 1970s |
| Publisher | self-published |
| Printer | |
| Impression | excellent |
| Colors | excellent |
| Condition | excellent - light wrinkling and printers marks in right margin |
| Genre | sosaku hanga |
| Miscellaneous | |
| Format | |
| H x W Paper | 15 1/4 x 20 13/16 in. (38.7 x 52.9 cm) |
| H x W Image | 12 7/8 x 19 in. (32.7 x 48.3 cm) |
| Collections This Print | |
| Reference Literature | |
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