A small Japanese blog post

[OSHIROmodels]

Thanks again chaps, the nice comments keep me going 

Funny though, they seem to make quite a lot of kits of various Samurai castles in different scales. Just thought this might appeal.

Again, these are either for the model railway enthusiasts or general modelmakers. There has been a resurgence over the past fifteen/twenty years or so for reconstructing the stone castle tenshu (the most familiar castle 'image') as the Japanese are embracing their past a bit more.

More recently there have been reconstructions of the more common wooden yamashiro as more sites have been unearthed.

The kits that you are on about don't really lend themselves to gaming and would only sit on the table edge as a backdrop for 6mm games (1/300 or thereabouts). There a some approximate 15mm scale religious buildings (1/100 or 1/150) that can be utilised. You can also find now more tenshu kits in a larger scale more suited to 28mm but these are wooden kits and should be treated as such. They can be changed into full colour gaming peices but really don't look the part.

Anyway, I'm rambling again 

cheers

James

[gamer Mac]

Cracking build
I love the atmosphere you always manage to get into your builds.

[carlos marighela]

Cool. Always interesting to get a handle on what makes other cultures tick and I've always found Japanese populat culture a bit baffling with all those manga, cosplay, Hello Kitty, type cutey-kitsch obsessions.

[tomogui]

I'm a wargamer based in Tokyo for the last six or seven years, and I can confirm there's not much of a tabletop gaming scene here, for all the reasons that jimbibbly mentioned. And I've never once seen a Japanese historical/samurai wargame played here.

I do know some clubs around Tokyo where they play GW games, Warmachine/Hordes, Infinity, Malifaux, etc. These clubs usually rent a room and set up tables at local community centers to play on the weekend. Living space is at a premium here, and most people don't have room to game at home. There's also not really a culture of casually inviting your friends around to your house; people tend to entertain outside the house (at bars or restaurants or whatever).

But on the bright side, geek culture is pretty widespread here and non-gamers are mostly very accepting of modeling/gaming as a hobby, even for grown men who should have put aside childish pursuits years ago.

Back OT, this looks to be another lovely build, jimbib! I've been eyeing off all your J-scenery for a dream project which I'll start one day when i have more room.