Ukiyo-e Map Objects - take two!

[Gamerprinter]

If I did another mountain, I was going to go crazy!! So I had to move on, I will finish them in the end.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I wanted to have at least 3 different Japanese castle (shiro) map objects. I want variety, as well as samples of different kinds. The first Shiro below is Matsue, in the Shimane Prefecture of western Japan. This was a hill type castle.

I chose to create Matsue castle for two reasons it is ideal for a typical castle for a daimyo, rather than a bureaucrat or shogun's palacial castle. Additionally this is the castle I plan on creating a floor-by-floor and ground works map, as it is smaller than massive structures built during the age of gunpowder.

Plus, this castle is located in my great grandfathers home town and his bloodline are the Daimyo's phyician for almost a thousand years, long before the castle was even built. I both visited and climbed every floor of this castle, alone (no tour) in 1977.

Matsue Shiro - the first of my Japanese Castle map objects.

GP

PS: one thing I noticed in the Ukiyo-e art references I'm working with, often the mountains, trees, sky, water and people have distinctive stylizations that make them stand apart from other forms of art. However, structures (like the castle below), boats, bridges and other "equipment" have a more realistic look. So working from photos (as there are almost no ukiyo-e castle prints), I am creating my stylistically colored, but realistic map objects of structures.