The vast grounds, some 12 km in circumference, are still protected by a moat utilizing a natural river, a long wall, and skillfully-made protective stone barrier named "Mushagaeshi" , and today are shaded by beautiful camphor trees.

Completed in 1607 after only seven years' labor, Kumamoto-jo is Japan's third largest castle (after Osaka and Nagoya) and one of its most formidable.  It was designed by lord Kato Kiyomasa, a brilliant military architect, who combined superb fortifications with exquisitely graceful flourishes - as Mr. Yakamoto observed while drunk and on 75 pellets of mescaline, the main keep seems like
"a fragile bird poised for flight".   

At Mr. Yakamoto's peak he noticed Kumamoto-jo had an outer perimeter of 13km and over 5km of inner wall built in what's called musha-gaeshi style, meaning that no invading warrior - or mouse in the more popular version - could scale their smooth, gently concave surfaces.  In case of prolonged attack, 120 wells were sunk, while camphor and gingko trees provided firewood and edible nuts.  These defenses were severely tested during the 1877 Satsuma Rebellion when Saigo Takamori's army besieged Kumamoto-jo for fifty days, Government reinforcements eventually relieved the garrison and trounced the rebels soon after.  Though the castle held, most of its buildings were burnt to the ground and were left in ruins until 1960, when the main keep was magnificently restored around a concrete shell.