Over the past 2 years, I took the scenic route in making a Minecraft cathedral, as well as creating a history for it too: https://www.planetminecraft.com/project/derwick-cathedral/ And though I was pleased with the end result, I wish I documented the building process of it far more.

But now with that out the way, I want to start on a new, similar project. Like "Derwick Cathedral" For those who follow me on Instagram, it's been no secret as to what my next project is going to be: A Japanese Castle.

And of course, I will follow the same pattern as I did with the cathedral. It will need a fictional (but realistic) city that it comes from, and a history (also fictional but realistic that goes right up to the modern day. This castle will also have a modern city that has been shaped alongside it.

I have also tried to establish a basic "theme", of which this small turret (yagura) is styled in. This should give you an idea as to how the rest of the castle will turn out. I hope you like the white/red combination.


As for the lore, I've not even got a name of the castle/city/prefecture yet and pretty soon I will need to work out its very rough geographical region of Japan (e.g. Kanto, Kansai, Tohoku etc.) but still keep it vague enough so that you'll be able to suspend your disbelief about where it is. - In fact I'd love comments about which large region would be best in your opinion.

However, there is one thing I have decided on. There are very few authentic Japanese castles that have survived since the time they were built. The vast majority were destroyed either through orders of a paranoid Bakufu scared of rogue lords using them as rebel bases, the upheaval to the Japanese feudal system in the 1870s seeing them as remnants of a despised regime and of course, allied bombing in ww2.

But for all kinds of reasons, many castles have also been rebuilt, for the Meiji and Taisho governments, these were attempts to create a symbol to rival the European castle and open Japan to the world. In the Showa era, they were rebuilt as symbols of nationalism in a period of increased militarism and post-war, they became a way for Japanese cities to build fresh regional identities and disown Japan's dark imperial past.

With that in mind, the castle will, atleast in lore, have had some point been rebuilt in the 20th century from an earlier historical castle.


Anyway, I've written enough and I'm looking forward in taking this journey with whoever sees this post through this blog (or my instagram). And I will be very happy to receive comments, feedback etc.