The Construction of the Himeji Castle - Essay Example

Task Himeji Castle The Himeji castle is among the oldest existing buildings in the world with a rich background of history. Thecastle is in Japan, and as such, exemplifies the Japanese culture and traditions in every sense of construction as well as architectural design. The location of the castle is a few hours ride from Tokyo town, the capital city of Japan. Apart from being the most famous castle in Japan, it is also among the most visited castle in the country owing to its rich cultural background. As such, it is among the most visited castles in Japan as it receives visitors from all over the globe throughout the year. These tourists come to feast their eyes on the great artistry projects, as well as the rich historical background that emanates from the castle. The exact location of this stately piece of historical art is at Hyogo Prefecture, in Japan. The castle stands out as one of the most resplendent castles in the country because of its age old history, as the oldest castle still in existence within Japan, as well as its beautiful architectural artistry that resonates the deep Japanese culture, and essentially the eastern way of life. As such, the culture holds a lot of both historical, as well as cultural foundations for the town of Hyogo, and to the entire Japanese population in general. The castle still stands strong despite its age, constructed in the seventeenth century, and its construction material. This is because the entire structure was curved out of wood. The construction of the Himeji castle is reminiscent of the famous shogun era, especially in relation to architectural style of the building. For instance, the castle encloses a staling 83 interlinking buildings within its folds. These are actually an ingenious network of defense chambers and systems built with the specific purpose of reinforcing the power of the army. The castle appears like a bird soaring up in the sky because of the numerous arched roofs that it has, with each arched roof of the castle layering above the other. Furthermore, white earthen plaster covers both the interior, as well as the exterior walls of the castle, from the walls all the way to the rafters. This earthen plaster gives the castle an irremovable sheen, thereby earning it the name “The White Heron of Japan”. As such, the castle stands proudly on its soil as its tail extends skywards. The interior architectural design of the house is exemplary in such a way that it defines the deep Japanese culture, as well as the unique historical background of the eastern culture. As mentioned above, the creation of the entire castle is made up of wood, and as such, this gives the Himeji castle a unique finishing both outwards and inwards. Wood finishing makes a building exquisite in a unique sense of way, and this is among the reasons why the Himeji castle still stands a landmark of history, as well as rich cultural background for the Japanese people, and the entire eastern culture. Built during the imperial era, the castle also connotes features of the historical leadership of Japan, its monarchial system, and the royal leadership of the country. This makes the castle a stately building, considering its features, its design, its color, and the arrangement of its layers. The interior design of the house is made of wood from the floors to the ceiling. One of the rooms appears like a showroom of weaponry used by the emperor during that time of ruler ship. These weapons include swords, long range guns and fighting sticks. The construction of the weapon room is exquisite in the sense that it only applies wood on the walls, as well as the floors. The arrangement of the weapons is neat on the walls, attached to wooden clippings and surrounding wooden rails. The wood maintains its natural brown color thereby giving the castle an embolic natural appearance. Furthermore, the weapons are also made from wood, especially the wooden sticks, and the handles for the rifles, alongside the handles of the swords. This creates a natural landscape of the room as a wooden spectacle. The other room evident in the excerpt is an interior design of the house, a special room that looks like a lounge for receiving visitors. The three dimensional appearance of the room asserts that the construction of the room, and the entire house in general, is made of wood. The architectures of the Himeji castle were keen on embedding the Japanese culture into the construction of this magnificent structure, as the wood appears to hold just as strongly as bricks, and also lasts as long, or even longer than the bricks. This was the symbolic cultural design of the Japanese during the ancient setting whereby the created their houses purely from wood, especially the imperial castles and other buildings used by royals and nobles as places of residence or work/offices Apart from the unique wood embodiment of the room, alongside structural designs and curves, the room also has paintings of different designs and colors from the walls, to the floors, and the ceiling. The floor has stripped wood alignment that presents a picturesque arrangement of wooden flooring laid together in strips. On one side of the walls is a picture of the natural landscape, a forest as such. The same picture also appears on the wall that has a wooden sliding door. The picture on the wall is bluish in color, and has trees and a waterfall alongside green leafy vegetation. The picture seems to be akin on capturing the natural forest surrounding and green vegetation across the Japanese fields and lands. The wall with the sliding door also has ventilations on the top. The ventilations are made of wood, whereby the architectures designed small poles of wood and arranged them neatly together, leaving a small space in between them for free movement of air. In addition, the strategic location of the windows high above the doors makes it unique in its own sense. The outside appearance of the castle is also eye catching in the exemplary arrangement of different layers of wood to create a great spectacle. The castle is a storey building made out of wood, and very high, with the Tenshakaku standing out as the highest towering peak of the castle at 302 feet above sea level. Three other smaller subsidiary towers crowd around Tenshakaku to form a cluster of towers, thereby making the castle appear as several layers of stacked white colored Lego blocks. In addition, the castle also has several winding staircases on the outside that visitors have to go through in order to get to the inner parts of the castle, interconnected with several passage ways and tunnels. Judging from the spectacular landscape of the Himeji castle, it is evident that culture and history defines the architectural style and designs that people adopt. As such, this was the architectural design for the Japanese people during the 17th century, and they imprinted it boldly through the creation of the Himeji castle that still stands strong several centuries later. Therefore, it is evident that people take keen interest on new architectural design and ideas from the massive numbers of tourists that flock the Himeji castle on an annual basis, coming from all corners of the world, to tour the castle and learn of the ancient Japanese architectural designs. Furthermore, this interest arouses new ideas for creativity and innovation, as these architects borrow from the historical background of the Himeji castle, to develop new and exquisite buildings and structures after applying creativity and innovation to improve the old design. People come into contact with new architectural design and traditions from seeing them on a real life setting, such as the throngs of tourists visiting the Himeji castle on an annual basis, as well as from books, online prints, and other publications with different excerpts of architectural designs. These could be books, trade deals, visit tours, as well as war escapades. Read More