Gifu Castle

The weekend before last, Mel and I visited Gifu castle (Gifu-jo), situated high on Mt Kinka in Gifu. Neither of us was feeling like a hike so we caught the ropeway (gondola) to the top.

Originally built about 1200, the 3 level donjon is like many other Japanese castles, a reconstruction. I enjoyed roaming around the castle and the 360 degrees views from the top are great. An added bonus for me is that Gifu-jo, like most castles contain historic displays, which means I spent ages looking at a small but good collection of Japanese arms and armour, which included a good number of tsuba(sword guards) as well as katana(sword), yari(spear) and naginata(polearm).