Okiku Well (Himeji Castle)

Himeji Castle (UNESCO World Heritage Site, inscribed 1993) contains 'Okiku's Well' (Okiku-ido) in its Kami-Yamazato-Maru inner bailey — a real well associated with the legend of Okiku, a servant girl reportedly killed and thrown into a well for breaking a precious plate. The legend is set during the Eisho era (1504–1521) but no contemporary primary source documenting a historical Okiku at Himeji has been identified. The legend's earliest documented cultural transmission is the bunraku play Banshu Sarayashiki (1741).

The castle itself is Japan's finest surviving example of early seventeenth-century castle architecture, built in its present form 1601–1609 by Ikeda Terumasa.