The original building was one of many destroyed during the Satsuma Rebellion but they’ve gone to great lengths to use original materials and methods in the reconstruction, and the result certainly looks like an accurate recreation of the opulent lacquered rooms in which the daimyo would receive guests.
I’m not generally a fan of reconstructions, but when they’re done this well…
And, apart from the walk through the interior reconstruction there was a highly choreographed samurai show, evidently designed to keep the younger set happy, but a pretty good time was had by all.
As far as the city itself is concerned, the other major attraction is Suizenji Koen, a landscape garden built in 1636 by Hosokawa Tadatoshi, the second lord of Kumamoto, as a private retreat. The garden is a network of traditional gardens spanning an area of sixty-five hectares that reproduces the fifty-three post stations of the Tokaido road, which connected Edo with Kyoto during the Edo Period, in miniature form.
Three and a quarter hours with most of them spent exploring the Castle ruled out a visit to the Garden this time around, but ongoing reconstruction at the Castle and the prospect of a walk through that landscape is the sort of thing that could well draw us back to Kumamoto.