July 9, 2007: Amazing model castle

[Undertoad]

It's Neatorama collaboration Monday!



When you take a quick look at the above, you say, ah, a fine castle dwelling in the East. But then you look again, and it's not quite right; what's with that stuff in the foreground?



That's because it's not a castle, but a huge model of one, made by this gent.

Axlrosen finds this blog entry at Japan Probe which points to Japan Times, which has more images of this guy and his accomplishment. Y'see, he's spent a large portion of his life building this.

His wife, Ikuko, 66, gave him a book containing photographs of the castle on his 47th birthday. He saw a drawing of the castle in the book and made up his mind to build a replica.

Imura bought a plot of land in the town of Enza in Ise, which has a beautiful view of mountains unhindered by the sight of power lines -- a setting he thought would be perfect for the replica.

He moved to the town and began building the model in 1989, using experience he gained as a joiner during his youth.

After retiring at age 60, Imura devoted his life to building the replica.

Men build models; it's what we do, for some unknown reason. But today I think we admit that Imura is king of the model builders.

Be sure to visit Neatorama for more neato items all the time!