Sakuramon Gate and the Tako-ishi Stone

You are standing before the Sakuramon, the gate into the castle's main enclosure. Its name means "cherry blossom gate". The army rebuilt the one you see in the 1880s, but the real surprise is on the other side: walk through and look straight ahead.

1The great rock

That colossal slab is the Tako-ishi, the "octopus stone", the largest in all the castle's walls. Its face covers about 60 square meters and it is estimated to weigh over a hundred tons. It was set in place in 1624 by Ikeda Tadao, lord of Okayama, one of the many daimyo the shogun forced to rebuild the castle at their own expense.

The stone came from the old province of Bizen, in today's Okayama Prefecture, more than a hundred kilometers away. Exactly how a block like this was moved and raised without modern machinery is still being studied.

2A show of power

It is no accident that it sits right here. It was the first thing anyone saw on passing through the gate to appear before the lord of the castle. For daimyo competing to please the shogun, placing the biggest stone was a way to show off both wealth and loyalty.

The name comes from a mark on its lower left corner that, people say, looks like an octopus.

3What to look for

• The "octopus" mark, bottom left of the great slab.
• The square courtyard, another masugata designed to trap the enemy.
• The other giant stones in the wall, which look small beside it.