Himeji Castle (姫路城) in Hyogo prefecture in Japan, is undoubtedly the paradigm of the Japanese castle and Japanese defensive architecture.
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| Himeji Castle |
The castle of the white crane, or the white heron, is how this colossal structure of towers and whitewashed walls is popularly known, which stands on Princess Hill (Hime).
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| Himeji Castle |
Himeji Castle - Tracing its origins from the first fortifications on this hill, back in the 14th century, to the last ones added in the 17th century, we can study the history of some of the most important rulers in Japanese history.
The influence of this work of art of defensive architecture has reached our days thanks to numerous references in cinema of all genres. For example, we can see Himeji Castle in the films Kagemusha and Ran by Akira Kurosawa, or in the film You Only Live Twice with Sean Connery as Agent 007.
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| Himeji Castle |
It is also a castle that has appeared in video games in the Civilization saga. Finally, the Okiku well found in the castle, as well as its macabre legend, served as inspiration for the filmmaker Hideo Nakata in his work Ringu, which has later been converted to Western cinema under the title of The Ring, creating all a mythical saga of horror movies.
In fact, aside from the female ghost of the well, Himeji Castle has another series of ghostly legends that make it, also, a destination for lovers of tourism of supernatural phenomena.