Decorative Window 犬山城 華頭窓

Official explanation

Although Inuyama Castle was built as a fortress, its creators paid great attention to aesthetics. This bell-shaped window frame (katomado) is a decorative feature, and does not enclose a window. Windows of this shape are characteristic of Zen architecture, and are often found on temples, shrines, castles, and palaces in Japan. Katomado can be written with a number of Chinese characters, including (火灯窓) which literally means “fire light window.” However, as it could be considered bad luck to imply the presence of fire on this primarily wooden building, the characters used here are homophonous ones that literally mean “flower head window” (華頭窓). The castle has two katomado on the south side and two on the north side.

出典: 地域観光資源の多言語解説文データベース（観光庁） — www.mlit.go.jp/tagengo-db. この英語解説文は観光庁の地域観光資源の多言語解説整備支援事業で作成しました。
Source: Japan Tourism Agency, Multilingual Explanation Database. This English text was produced by the Japan Tourism Agency's multilingual explanation project and is shown unedited. Opening hours and services may have changed since it was written.