Himeji or Nagoya Castle?

Which castle is recommended?

Himeji, Nagoya is a recent recontruction.

Himeji is an original, Nagoya is a concrete reconstruction.

I've been there and there are signs stating that it was reconstructed in the 50's. Granted it is not a concrete reconstruction, but I don't think it is actually an original as in "the structure you see and walk through is still standing from when it was originally built."

Much of it is original from the 1580 rebuilding. During the late 50's it went under restoration. However it is not a replica like Osaka or Nagoya castles.

Confused; by your standards there is hardly a building in the world that is today as it was when it was first built!
Versailles, the White House, Westminster hall, Notre Dame cathedral in Paris etc. have all been restored,sometimes many times, but always using similar materials to the original ones and using the same craftsmanship. However they have never been totally destroyed then rebuilt using modern materials. Osaka and Nagoya castles were totally destroyed and rebuilt in concrete. Himeji was restored and some of the wood beams and posts replaced but it is the real thing in the same way that a man with an artificial hip and dentures. is still as human as the day he was born and not a robot.

in my opinion, I would go to Himeji, it's so beautiful if will bring a tear to your eye. You get a real feel of the era & there is plenty of cool Samurai gear to look at. It's huge and worth the visit if it's out of your way. Also - next door is a beautiful garden, can't quite remember the name of it (someone will I'm sure) but there's loads of Koi carp & lovely plants & flowers to see.

Monkey see, I wasn't referring to just a beam here or a nail there being replaced. From what I saw on display in Himeji it looked like it was a total reconstruction of the castle. As in ''we know that a castle once stood here, so we built what we think it looked like.''
That's a little more than ''a man with a hip replacement''.

I just wanted to know if what was there was original (with work done to preserve it) or if it had been completely rebuilt. There are many building around that world that are still original that have had work done to keep them standing (the pyramids in Egypt, the colosseum in Rome, the entire city of Machu Picchu in Peru, etc). I just wanted to know if that was the way it was done with Himeji or not.

I think there is a bit of confusion here.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi first built a small donjon on this site for his campaigns in western Japan from 1577-1580. You can still see some of the remnants of Hideyoshi's castle in Himeji castle as Ikeda incoporated some of the stone walls into his castle. Ikeda Terumasa, an ally of Tokugawa Ieyasu at the Battle of Sekigahara, was awarded this province (Harima) for his alliance during the war. Ikeda Terumasa built the donjon of Himeji-jo and erected the castle as it is known today. Himeji-jo's nickname Shirasagi-jo means "White Heron Castle" because the main donjon with its three smaller donjon resembles a white heron. Himeji-jo was granted "World Heritage" status by UNESCO in 1993.

So Toyotomi Hideyoshi built the original in 1577-1580, but it was rebuilt in Tokugawa Ieyasu's time, around the early 1600s, in its present form. The fact that it is World Heritage listed means that it was NOT "rebuilt in the 1950s"

Maybe what is most important is a visit to Himeji-jo will give a person a idea of how a Japanese castle should look like, both inside and out. Nagoya-jo has a very good outside look, well except for a elevator shaft on the northeast side, but the inside of Nagoya-jo is a museum with very good displays and even a old town street display that you can walk through, but not what a Japanese castle looks like on the inside. So if a person wants to see a Japanese castle, then Himeji-jo is best, If a person want to see a history museum and the outside of a Japanese castle, then it is Nagoya-jo.

I would definitely recommend visiting Himeji-jo as it is amongst the best and most original of castles in all of Japan. Plus the added bonus (especially if you are a film fan) is that you not only get to visit a beautiful castle, but you get to visit a famous(ish) film location. It can be seen and easily recognised in films such as Kurosawa�fs �eKagemusha�f and �eRan�f and in the James Bond film �eYou Only Live Twice�f. It was possibly the highlight of my visit to Japan.

Himeji is the best and most beautiful castle I have be inside. (so far) Many look good from the outside and are great for taking pictures (outside), but kind of a let-down when you get inside.

If anyone wants to find out what castles are originals, reconstructed or ruins, this site is worth checking out:

http://www.jcastle.info/