West Bailey Long Gallery
Castles built during the Edo period (1603–1867) typically included at least one tamon yagura—a long, well-fortified gallery of rooms with watchtowers at each end. Such galleries served as defensive structures, living quarters, or warehouses, depending on the needs of the time. If necessary, its rooms could be dismantled and rebuilt in a different part of the castle.
Himeji Castle’s gallery is roughly 240 meters long. In the early seventeenth century, when Honda Tadatoki (1596–1626) and Princess Sen (1597–1666) had their sumptuous living quarters in the West Bailey, the north section and its connected towers were used as apartments for female servants and the princess’s ladies-in-waiting.