Hamamatsu Castle

One of the many gems of Shizuoka prefecture to the west of Tokyo is Hamamatsu City. Most people in Kanto and indeed the rest of Japan doesn’t consider the city to be very important but with over 800 000 people it is still larger than many European capitals. It is also famous for being the home of Suzuki Motors. Like most other industrial cities in the Kanto area it was largely destroyed in 1945, so most historic buildings are replicas, just like this recently built copy of the original Hamamatsu Castle. Although it is one of the smallest castles (if not the smallest) in Japan it has an illustrious history as one of the core castles held by the without a doubt most important historical figure in Japan, the first Tokugawa shogun, Ieyasu. I have been inside once a few years ago so this bitingly cold winter day I spent my few free minutes in the castle park instead, and managed to get one photo of the only blooming tree in Shizuoka (or at least that’s how I felt it numb from cold and strong winds). The public restroom was amazingly beautiful, which is why I force my poor readers to gaze upon Japanese sanitary architecture at its finest! There was also an interesting sign explaining some of the local kamon (Japanese heraldic clan or family signs) of local nobles and title holders connected to the area around the castle (I believe, the description was a little sketchy, but I think I have readers who are far more steeped in Hamamatsu history than I am). Most Japanese families today have a kamon associated with their lineage or the noble family they served under: you sometimes see these on houses, buildings or the kimono worn during very formal occasions.