Bowser's Castle

INFO

Osaka Castle stands at the heart of Osaka, one of Japan's most famous landmarks and the big project of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Work started in 1583 on the old grounds of the Ishiyama Honganji temple. Chosen for its command of the Yodo River and its closeness to Kyoto. Hideyoshi wanted something grander than Oda Nobunaga's Azuchi Castle, so he topped it with a huge five storey keep finished in gold leaf.

After the Toyotomi clan fell, the Tokugawa shogunate rebuilt the castle from 1620 and finished an even taller keep by 1628. Lightning burnt that one down in 1665, and the tower standing today is the third version, rebuilt in 1931 from public donations. It now holds a museum on the castle's history, ringed by wide moats and massive stone walls in Osaka Castle Park, which gets packed in spring for the cherry blossoms and is a constant attraction all year round for photographers such as myself.

Osaka Castle is one of those locations in Osaka you just have to visit as a photographer and it was one that I had visited on my previous trip to Japan in 2019. This time I was on a mission to experiment and not repeat the same compositions I had previously captured.

For this trip I accidently stumbled upon my chosen view of the Castle by accident when making my way up to the main courtyard with my friends. After parting ways I got setup with a 24mm+1.4x teleconverter shift lens composition and sat around for many hours capturing the setting sun and crowds of people that came by.

Bowser's Castle

View of Osaka Castle from the Northern Entrance, Osaka