Decorative Window
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.