For Today’s Japan photo series, we will continue our tour of some of Japan’s finest castles. Today we shall visit Fushimi Castle 伏見城, or otherwise known as Momoyama Castle 桃山城.

This photo was uploaded onto flickr by user smsalamon. Loved how the photo is composed where the light from the sky seems to be shining on the castle.

A little more information on Fushimi Castle 伏見城:

Fushimi Castle, also known as Momoyama Castle, was originally built in 1592-94 as a luxurious retirement home for warlord and unifier Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Some 20,000 to 30,000 workers contributed to the construction effort. Hideyoshi planned to meet with Ming Dynasty diplomats at Fushimi to negotiate the end of his disastrous seven-year invasion of Korea.

Two years after the castle was completed, an earthquake leveled the building. Hideyoshi had it rebuilt, and plum trees were planted all around the castle, giving it the name Momoyama (“Plum Mountain”).

The castle is more of a warlord’s luxury resort than a defensive fortification. The tea ceremony room, which was completely covered in gold leaf, is particularly well-known.

In 1600, the castle was destroyed after an eleven-day-long siege by the 40,000-strong army of Ishida Mitsunari, one of Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s generals. The samurai Torii Mototada, who served Tokugawa Ieyasu, refused to surrender the castle. He finally committed seppuku with the castle burning all around him. Torii’s sacrifice allowed his master enough time to escape. Thus, his defense of Fushimi Castle changed Japanese history. Ieyasu would go on to found the Tokugawa shogunate, which ruled Japan until the Meiji Restoration of 1868.

What was left of the castle was dismantled in 1623. Different parts were incorporated in other buildings; for example, Nishi Honganji Temple’s Karamon Gate originally was part of Fushimi Castle. The blood-stained floor where Torii Mototada committed suicide became a ceiling panel at Yogen-in Temple in Kyoto.

When the Meiji Emperor died in 1912, he was buried at the original site of Fushimi Castle. In 1964, a replica of the building was constructed out of concrete at a site close to the tomb. It was called a “Castle Entertainment Park,” and contained a museum of Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s life.

The concrete replica/museum was closed to the public in 2003. Tourists can still walk through the grounds, however, and take pictures of the authentic-looking exterior.