week7 Construction

In the Meiji period, Himeji Castle was about to be destroyed. In 1868, new an emperor started new politics. Sakai Tadakuni who was the final lord of a castle lived in Tokyo. So Himeji Castle was property of the nation. Period of samurai was finished. Many castle it was to make war was an unless object. The government of meiji destroyed many castle.  Fortunately, Himeji Castle was left. But the government thought that they use Himeji Castle as a barracks and a training school of the army. So, many building in the premises were broken. There were no people who funded to repair Himeji Castle, so Himeji Castle was dilapidated.

Some people pay attention of beauty as castle. Some people said to keeping idsn good repair. One of the people who say was Nakamura sigetou. He was resort eagerly to keeping in good repair. Nakamura said “now, well-know castle will break. We must keep well preserved.” Nakamura said to Yamagata Aritomo who was the minister of the army,” we must repair the castle quickly by expenses of the army ministry to keep a thing permanently. ” As a result, the government decided to repair Himeji Castle in 1879. Praising his work, a stone monument was built.

Himeji castle was decided to repair, but the new government had sort of funds. Only a prop include. Weeds grew on the roof. The roof tiles fell. The wall collapsed. When people see this state, people took action to save Himeji Castle. One of them raised a fund for take up collection. In 1908, a town hall meeting was held, and people did a grass-roots movement. The nation finally made up their mind to go to work. In 1910, full-scale construction started.

In 1945, world war Ⅱ finished. Fortunately, Himeji Castle remained. But Himeji Castle was damaged. A repair and keeping stopped by the war. But, in 1950, it resumed．　It cost one hundred million to have Himeji Castle repaired in those days. In this construction, they found that a castle tower leaned. It weighed heavily on stones in the southeast. Stones cracked. Now, a castle tower was toppled, so they though it must be repaired quickly. In 1956, a repair and keeping started again. This construction was largest scale they have never experienced. The person in charge investigate the structure of Himeji Castle. They made a model of castle tower, and they devised way of construction.

In 1964, construction finished. It took eight years. Two hundred and fifty thousand people had to do with this.  It cost five hundred and fifty million to repair only a castle tower. The total come to ten million. This construction called “syouwa-no-tikujo(昭和の築城)”, because it the biggest construction.

In 2009, “heisei-no-daisyuri(平成の大修理)“started. It will take five years.It cost twenty and eight million.　Himeji Castle would be remake earthquake-resistant construction. We can inspect a construction site. It is a rare chance to inspect.  I suggest going to Himeji Castle!

Thank you for your reading!

See you next week.