天守 (tenshu) is the Japanese word for a castle tower. There are only 12 original tenshu left in Japan. I visited them all over a couple of years and made some simple videos. You can find a map of the 12 and a little more information on this page.
Inuyama translates into dog mountain, but there were no dogs living up there the first time I went. The second time I was there, however, there were a lot of dogs visiting: pampered pooches in pushchairs who were cooed and fawned over by owners preoccupied with photographing their pets.
This second visit (of mine, not the dogs) had been in the works for quite some time; you see, the first time I went to Inuyama, the restoration work had run over schedule and the whole keep was covered in scaffolding. I enjoyed walking around the surrounding area and the interior of the castle was still interesting, but I wanted to see the real deal, unencumbered by construction. Just didn’t feel like I’d properly completed it otherwise.
The original second plan was to come back in cherry blossom season – there’s a big festival in Inuyama then, and I thought it would be a cool last trip to do before leaving Japan. For obvious reasons, 2020 didn’t let that plan pan out, so it was November before I got back to the castle. It hadn’t changed much.
Inuyama castle has a less colourful history than some of its siblings in other parts of the country. It started off life as a fortress built by Oda Nobunaga’s uncle in the early 16th century and was jazzed up a bit over the years. The way it looks now supposedly dates back to 1620. It was captured and recaptured a few times during the Sengoku period, it ended up in the hands of the Naruse clan at the start of the 17th century and there it stayed until 2004.
The Naruse turned over the management of the castle at this point to a non-profit organization who now take care of its upkeep. (Pun intended.)
You can step out onto the outside of the watchtower at Inuyama and get fantastic views of Nagoya in the distance, Gifu prefecture to the north of the Kiso river that makes its way past the mountain upon which the castle is built, and Jakuko-in closer to the east, a temple complex that I really should get around to visiting one day.
CityHillsAndSea 