photo #1844135

Kumamoto Castle was the last castle to see battle action, when it was attacked by the Satsuma clan on February 22, 1877. This was the last civil war action in Japan. The rebel army of 15,000 former samurai led by Saigo Takamori laid siege to the castle, defended by Kanjo Tani for 52 days until April 15 when reinforcements arrived, the siege was lifted and Saigo retreated to Kagoshima where he was ultimately defeated. The keep of Kumamoto Castle was destroyed by fire during the battle.The keep was reconstructed in concrete in 1960. Over the next 60 years, various restoration work was carried out, restoring a number of 17th century structures until 2016, when Kumamoto Castle sustained severe damage from a magnitude 6.2 earthquake on April 14 of 2016, and even more damage the following day when a magnitude 7.3 quake struck.