Miniature Himeji Castle Build In Mie Prefecture
A cool story from the Japan Times/Kyodo about a man in who has build an impressive replica of Himeji Castle:
Hiroyasu Imura spent 19 years pursuing his boyhood dream of faithfully producing a replica of Himeji Castle in Hyogo Prefecture.
The 69-year-old former insurance examiner completed his model of Himeji Castle at a scale of 1:23 in the garden of his home in Ise, Mie Prefecture, in April.
[...]
His wife, Ikuko, 66, gave him a book containing photographs of the castle on his 47th birthday. He saw a drawing of the castle in the book and made up his mind to build a replica.
Imura bought a plot of land in the town of Enza in Ise, which has a beautiful view of mountains unhindered by the sight of power lines — a setting he thought would be perfect for the replica.
He moved to the town and began building the model in 1989, using experience he gained as a joiner during his youth.
After retiring at age 60, Imura devoted his life to building the replica.
He used reinforced plastic material for the structure and carved patterns on wooden molds to show the unevenness of roof tiles.
Imura also studied reference materials to reproduce structures that no longer exist. He made repeated trips to Himeji Castle to confirm details in drawings and to count the number of stones in stairways. He once dropped a rope surreptitiously to measure the height of a stone wall while trying to avoid being noticed by a security guard.
His most difficult challenge was reproducing the stone walls. He bought stone plates, broke them into pieces several centimeters in size and then assembled the pieces in molds to reproduce the slanting walls of the castle.
Concrete was poured into the molds to solidify them — a process that took 12 years to complete.
More photos of this cool model can be seen at Tokai Subculture Site(Japanese).
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Impressive!
freakin awesome, some might say he has too much time on his hands, but face it, he’s most likely retired, and retired people have alot of time on their hands!
“After retiring at age 60, Imura devoted his life to building the replica.”
I’d say that yes, he is retired. The big question now is, what next? He’s finished his grand project, so what is there to do now? Perhaps he could start on the castle town….
I saw him on TV several days ago. When an interviewer asked him whehter he would construct the castle town, he replied that he does not have enough lot for it. So the next project could possibly be making miniature corps…or attending sengoku events like this making his own armors…..
I’ve been to the real Himeji Castle twice during cherry blossom period. Really enjoy.
This miniature castle is impressive.
Beautiful! I love Himeji castle. However, I find it a bit strange that he felt he needed a replica of a castle that still exists. Maybe he should have built one of the hundreds that have been destroyed over the centuries.
From the article, it looks as if he has recreated not only the remaining buildings, but the other ones that no longer exist – what we see of Himeji today is not the entire complex. Many of the long walls and wall-houses (nagaya) that topped the stone ramparts have vanished.
real hero,respect