Samurai at Himeji

Himeji castle (about one hour on the Shinkansen bullet train from Kyoto) is Japan's first World Cultural Site (1993). It is nicknamed "the white egret".
Sadly at present the main five storey keep is shrouded in scaffolding and sheeting - as a major restoration programme is taking place, and so we had to be satisfied with largely internal pictures.
Today's posting shows part of a display of Samurai uniforms, looking rather formidable, certainly warmongering people not noted for their sensitivity or gentler attributes.
The castle is enormous, dating from the 14th century, and consists, inter alia, of a huge main keep, 27 towers, 15 fortified gates, some beautiful formal gardens and in all covering 107.8 hectares. It looks totally impregnable and makes our most impressive British castles look pretty puny by comparison.