Front Entrance

Kumamoto Castle
Kyushu, Japan

The front entrance to the donjon is shown here. An outstanding feature of this castle is the juxtaposition of architectural beauty (upper half) and military strength (lower half). Hideyori himself would have accepted nothing less, and here was given the full measure of both. Japan's rulers were, at the same time, both cultivated aesthetes and bloodthirsty warriors; however incongruous it may seem to people in the West, both elements were constantly present in the Weltanschauung of elite Japanese.