The Shachihoko and City Lights from the Keep

The Story

I took this shot from a south-facing window after climbing to the top floor of the Main Keep. An illuminated Shachihoko sits in the foreground, with the glittering night view of Himeji city spreading out behind it.

Ideally, I would have loved to capture the massive pair of Shachihoko on the very top roof ridge, but since I obviously couldn't climb onto the roof (laughs), I made this one right outside the window my main subject!

Although the tile itself has been restored, successive lords of Himeji Castle must have looked down at the town below from this exact same direction. Thinking about the stark contrast between the pitch-black darkness the powerful rulers of centuries past would have seen, and the dazzling modern nightscape spreading before my eyes today, fills me with deep emotion, making me realize the vast passage of time.

By the way, as mentioned in the tips, there are 11 Shachihoko on the Main Keep. Interestingly, during the major Showa-era restoration, they used the oldest surviving Edo-period tile (which happened to be a closed-mouth female) as a mold for all of them. Thus, for a time, all 11 tiles had the exact same female face! (The top pair was finally corrected to a proper male-female pair during the recent Heisei restoration.)