I love the contrast between old and new here: The modern hotel right next to the old castle.
The sun had just set and the sky it up beautiful like this. First a light orange, then a fiery red. By the time I made it to the castle, the light was going fast and it had turned to this shade of purple. Okazaki Castle never looked better.
Living in Okazaki, I’ve visited Okazaki castle many times. I’m always photoing it and always looking for that perfect shot. This isn’t it. But I do feel like every time I shoot the castle I get a little closer to that perfect shot than before.
This is a nice landscape shot I took from Okazaki Castle a while ago. I liked the clouds and that’s what made me take it. Although it’s not the focus of the photo itself, the tower may draw your eye more than anything, so let’s talk about that.
Looking towards Okazaki Castle here near evening, it almost looks like a scene from a samurai movie set during an earlier time. I half expected to see some ninja crawling around on one of those roofs!
I think it’s actually just tall, wild grass that is smack dab in the middle of the Oto River on a small island there. The city crews come out twice a year to cut it down to nothing, but it grows wild the rest of the time. I wanted to use it to create the illusion of maybe a past time when there wasn’t so much stuff clogging up the view of the castle.
Ok, maybe mummy trees is a bit of a silly name. Still, it kind of describes the photos a little. I don’t know exactly why they wrap up trees like this here in Japan. Is it a holy thing, is it to protect the trees from the cold? I’ve heard both and the people I’ve asked are unsure themselves. At any rate, it seems like a tedious job. I’ve watched as city workers go from tree to tree, carefully wrapping them up. They are very meticulous and it takes a while to do each tree.
Or at least a reasonable facsimile of the former castle. The real Nagoya Castle was almost completely destroyed in WW2. What you see below is a modern replica built in 1959. It is pretty nice to look at — just don’t go inside. As was the fashion at the time, I suppose, the inside is a lifeless, ugly, concrete museum. But the outside is very well done. At least to these untrained eyes it is. This guy could probably tell you more.
A view of Okazaki Castle, to be exact. According to legend, Tokugawa Ieyasu was born here. Many people I meet say it’s an open secret that he was actually born in Toyota City, about a 30 minute drive to the north, but it’s a tradition to say he was born here anyways. I’m not sure which is true, but at this point I suppose it matters little.