Himeji Castle: Where the Women Remain

In front of you rises the white keep. But that white castle was not a building where the lords lived.

The first fort at Himeji is said to have been built in 1333, as the Kamakura period gave way to the era of the Northern and Southern Courts. From then until the Meiji era, the castle passed through thirteen families and forty-eight lords. That is more often than almost any other domain, the government's official guide notes. Yet not one of those forty-eight homes survives. At your feet are only two rows of paving stones that mark where the palace once stood. The guide names just two exceptions, buildings made for daily life. And on the very top floor of the keep there is no lord's room. There is a shrine. You can't see it from here, but it is there.

This story asks a single question: where in this castle do the women's stories survive? At the top, in a well, in a turret, there are stories. We'll stand in front of each one and check its story, in the exact words the people of Himeji chose.

Why is someone other than the lord at the very top? We'll go and meet whoever it is later. To begin, go through the gate and turn left.