One builds a castle in the hope that its simple existence will act as a deterrent. Turns out this didn’t happen when the Satsuma forces determined to march on Edo, which took them through Kumamoto, controlled at the time by the Edo government. Events got, shall we say, out of hand as the Satsuma forces fired on the castle from a nearby hill. The event is famously portrayed in the movie, The Last Samurai. Attached is an ukiyoe of the battle, which resulted in the destruction of the original structure. -