Himeji Castle is a hilltop castle in Himeji, Hyōgo Prefecture. It’s one of the twelve castles with keeps surviving from the Edo period, and it’s regarded as one the finest examples of Japanese castle architecture. The castle is poetically referred to as the White Egret Castle or White Heron Castle due to its resemblance to one of these birds in flight.

The main keep is the most prominent structure in the centre of a vast defensive complex of moats and stone walls topped with watchtowers and plaster walls.

Himeji Castle was established 1333 when Akamatsu Norimura built a fort on top of Himeyama hill. It was developed over several centuries by the leading samurai of each period. In 1600, Tokugawa Ieyasu gave the castle to Ikeda Terumasa for services in the Battle of Sekigahara, and Ikeda completely rebuilt the castle from 1601 to 1609, expanding it into a large castle complex. More buildings were later added by Honda Tadamasa from 1617 to 1618. Himeji Castle has remained largely intact for almost 700 years, surviving the bombing of Himeji in World War II, and the 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake. The castle buildings underwent restoration work for several years and reopened to the public in 2015.