ABSTRACT
Japan’s castles feature as shooting locations design models in many works of popular culture. However, works about the Warring States period (1467-1590) often contain a major historical inaccuracy: the castle design did not exist at the time. This chapter discusses two turning points: the construction of the first castle keep built for ‘show’ (Azuchi Castle, constructed 1576-1579) and the Meiji Restoration (1868). While the ruins of Japan’s castles from the pre-1576 period can be sites of war-related contents tourism at actual sites of battles, castle keeps from the post-1576 period are most likely to be only locations of battles in the imagination and on screen.
