NAGOYA CASTLE

A castle in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, the third largest city in Japan. Construction of the castle began in 1610 under the command of Tokugawa Ieyasu, a feudal lord who brought peace to the whole country. The construction used the most advanced and sophisticated castle construction technologies available at the time. It was the first castle designated as a National Treasure for its superbness, both as a defense fortress and as a work of art. The castle we see today was rebuilt in 1959, as the original castle burnt down in an air raid in 1945. Nagoya Castle is best known for the golden Shachihoko adorning the topmost roof. Shachi in Japanese usually means killer whale, but the shachi used on Nagoya Castle are of a mythological Chinese creature believed to have the head of a tiger or dragon and the torso of a fish. One such shachi was exhibited at the World Exposition in Vienna in 1873, and its grand scale and exotic look fascinated the visitors there. One might say that the golden Shachihoko was the forerunner of the cool Japan movement.