ABSTRACT
An elderly lady, living in the shadow of the great Castle of Himeji in Japan, may always emphasize the supreme nature of the Castle; sometimes, she may even warn a young one, whose manners are unacceptable to her: ‘Be ashamed of your bad behaviour; the Castle is always watching you’. The Castle is thus personified among the locals in Himeji City. In fact, this personification appears in a history textbook assigned for local primary school students prepared by the Board of Education of Himeji City: ‘Himeji Castle always watches over us in the same appearance as in the past’ (Board of Education of Himeji City 1995: 38). This personification not only symbolizes its dominant architectural presence as it gazes down on half a million people in the Himeji City and at the vast Banshu Plain from the top of its hill, but also provides us an intangible testimony of resilience of the nation and of the pride the Japanese take of its past and its patrimony. The Castle still stands, despite the fact that the city below has undergone remarkable change as a regional industrialized economic centre after its complete destruction at the end of World War II.
