“Japanese castles (城,
Shiro
) are fortresses built to guard important or strategic sites, such as ports, river crossings, and crossroads. They are built of wood and stone and almost always incorporate the landscape into their defenses.”
Ever since I watched Ninjago, I have loved Japanese Architecture. There's something about it that makes it so beautiful and so iconic. For this build, I tried to demonstrate that by building a Japanese Castle.
The build itself has 2997 pieces and 5 Minifigures. This set was made on
Stud.io
and custom decals were made using Part Designer.
The Build:
On the outside of the castle, I built a Japanese garden. This garden was at first meant to be only a cherry blossom but I realized that the garden added so much more to the build. In the garden, I added a wooden bridge that leads to the cherry blossom, a waterfall, and dozens of plants. I even added a little that if you look underneath the waterfall you could see a fish!
For the interior of the castle, I added 8 rooms. The lowest one is where the living room, dining room, and kitchen are located. I added a little tea cart that could be pushed around. Above that room there is storage. It's not really a room but it does count as space in the house. In the storage, you can see weapons and books hidden for future use. After that is the dojo. The dojo is where you can train and fight. There is also a household shrine in the dojo. On the 3rd floor, there is a large Japanese bed, a bathroom, and a closet. I tried to make these rooms more old-fashioned. On the 4th floor, there is a table. This table could be used for multiple things like a desk for work, or a table to play games. Finally above that, there is more room for storage.
As a small detail, I added large lion statues that guard the palace. They were really fun to make and I thought they added a lot to the build.