Stone walls
Terraces.
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Takeda Castle was a Sengoku-period Japanese castle in the Wadayama district of Asago, northern Hyogo Prefecture, north of Himeji and northwest of Kyoto, about 56 km north of Himeji in a straight line. It stands about 353 metres above sea level and is often called locally the «Machu Picchu of Japan». The castle was destroyed in the Sengoku period, and only its foundations and stone walls remain; the ruins have been a protected National Historic Site since 1943. It sits on Mount Shiroyama at a strategic point where the San'indo highway met the road south to the Seto Inland Sea, close to the Ikuno mine, one of Japan's largest silver mines in the Muromachi period. Massive, carefully fitted stone walls spread across the mountaintop in successive terraces, with grassy lawns and pine trees, overlooking valleys and ranges of mountains. On cold autumn mornings a sea of cloud fills the valleys below, and the ruins seem to float above it. Visitors reach the summit on foot, or by bus and then a walk, and wander the walls; many climb an opposite hill at dawn to see the castle above the clouds. Autumn is the best time for that.
Terraces.
Autumn mornings.
Over the mountains.
Wadayama, Asago, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan
Cold autumn mornings.
Moderate.