Japan 2006: Kumamoto Castle

Yesterday our adventure today led us three hours north of Kagoshima, Japan to Kyushu, Japan. There we visited the Kumamoto Castle. The year 2007 marks the 400th anniversary of the Kumamoto Castle. Here is a brief description of the area and castle.

Kumamoto (熊本市; -shi) is the capital city of Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan.
As of 2003, the city has an estimated population of 669,034 and a density of 2,507.91 persons per km². The total area is 266.77 km².
Kato Kiyomasa, a contemporary of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, was made daimyo of half of the (old) administrative region of Higo in 1588. After that, Kiyomasa built Kumamoto Castle. Due to its many innovative defensive designs, Kumamoto Castle was considered impregnable, and Kiyomasa enjoyed a reputation as one of the finest castle-builders in Japanese history. After Kiyomasa died in 1611, his son, Tadahiro, succeeded him, but Tadahiro was removed by Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1633, replacing him with the Hosokawa clan. Former Prime Minister of Japan Hosokawa Morihiro is a direct descendant of the Hosokawa clan of Kumamoto. Another famous politician, former president of Peru Alberto Fujimori, also has roots in Kumamoto; Fujimori's ancestors emigrated from Kumamoto early in the 20th century.
The city's most famous landmark is Kumamoto Castle, a large, and in its day, an extremely well fortified Japanese castle. The donjon (castle central keep) is a concrete reconstruction built in the 1970s, but several ancillary wooden buildings remain of the original castle. The castle was besieged during the Satsuma Rebellion, and was sacked and burned after a 53-day siege. It was during this time that the tradition of eating raw horse meat was born, and basashi (raw horse meat) remains popular in Kumamoto and, to a lesser extent, elsewhere in Japan.