TSU, Mie Pref. (Kyodo) Hiroyasu Imura spent 19 years pursuing his boyhood dream of faithfully producing a replica of Himeji Castle in Hyogo Prefecture. The 69-year-old former insurance examiner completed his model of Himeji Castle at a scale of 1:23 in the garden of his home in Ise, Mie Prefecture, in April.
Since completing the model, Imura has been deluged with visitors. The replica has even impressed a curator of the municipal castle research office in the city of Himeji, where the real fortress stands.
The castle was listed in 1993 as a UNESCO World Heritage site along with Horyuji Temple in the ancient capital of Nara.
The official said that if someone were shown a photograph of the replica, they might think it was a picture of the actual castle. The Himeji government has named Imura as a tourist ambassador.
Himeji Castle has escaped damage for nearly 400 years since it was refurbished by feudal lord Ikeda Terumasa between 1601 and 1609. Its main donjon consists of five layers and six floors.
The replica is about 160 sq. meters, with the main keep about 2.2 meters high. It cost Imura about 18 million yen to build. He made sure every detail corresponds to the original, including the curved lines of the castle's graceful roofs, its white walls, intricately combined connecting turret, stone walls and moat.
Imura's first encounter with the original castle came at age 14, when he saw a photograph of it in a boy's magazine. He was a fan of samurai movies and was inspired by castles. He wondered how people had lived in such palaces and kept thinking about reproducing Himeji Castle.
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