Third largest castle in Japan (after Osaka-jō and Nagoya-jō), Kumamoto-jō is arguably one of the most striking. Founded by Kato Kiyomasa after the Battle of Sekigahara, it became one of the most extensively fortified castles of the Edo period. Unlike many castles, which were destroyed in the Meiji Restoration, Kumamoto-jō survived the changes only to be burnt down during the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877. The current donjon and lower turret were restored in 1960. In 2007, a full-scale wooden reconstruction of the daimyō's palace was built beside the central keep - at the time of my visit in 2005, it was still an obscured mess of scaffolding.