In 1589, Mōri Terumoto (a feudal lord or daimyō) commissioned this castle while the settlement was called Gokamura (five villages). He renamed the area Hiroshima meaning “wide island.” For nearly twenty years, “Carp Castle” was occupied by Fukushima Masanori before serving twelve generations of the Asano family from 1619 until the end of the feudal system in 1871. It was then a military base when destroyed by the atomic blast in 1945. Only this five-story main keep (tenshu) was reconstructed following the original Azuchi-Momoyama design. Inside of Hiroshima Castle is a simple yet fascinating museum.
