Japanese Castles History Detective Pack

A history detective pack for ages 11 to 14: which is Japan’s oldest castle keep, and why do the sources answer differently? Six short quoted sources with provenance, an evidence table, reading the dates, open questions, what happened to the castles after 1868, a judgement question and full answers.

What’s inside:

- Teacher page (how the pack could fit the Key Stage 3 world history study, Department for Education wording)

- Background: castles, keeps and survivors

- Glossary

- Sources A to F: short quotations with provenance from JNTO and Matsumoto Castle’s official website, with source-weighing grids

- Task 1: evidence table

- Task 2: reading the dates

- Task 3: open questions, where the sources give no single answer

- Task 4: what happened to the castles after 1868?

- Task 5: your judgement, with a planning prompt

- Full answers with sources

- Credits, licence and sources

Pages: 13 (including cover and credits). Sizes: A4 (210 × 297 mm) and US Letter (8.5 × 11 in), both PDFs included in one zip.

Printing: Print at 100% / actual size on A4 or US Letter. Inside pages use light backgrounds and print well in black and white; covers are dark, so start from page 2 to save ink.

Every fact is checked against named source pages from UNESCO, JNTO, the Japan Tourism Agency, the Matsumoto Castle website, the Kumamoto Castle website, the Nagoya Castle website and the Department for Education (checked 3 Nov 2026), and the sources are listed on the pack’s credits page. Where the evidence gives no single answer, what each source says is shown with its source.

There are no photos in this pack: all drawings, puzzles and layouts are REALLYBYTE’s own work. Drawings are simplified impressions: not photographs, not reconstructions of any real castle, not to scale, and not copied from any site plan, map, guidebook, print, photo or book. Not affiliated with UNESCO, the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), the Japan Tourism Agency, Himeji Castle, Matsumoto Castle, Kumamoto Castle, the Osaka Castle Museum, Nagoya Castle, Matsumoto City, Kumamoto City, Nagoya City, Osaka City, the Japanese government, the UK government or any museum. Their names, and the names of the places they look after, are used only to identify the places and sources we quote.

Licence: personal and single-classroom use. You may print as many copies as you need for your own family or your own class, and share it with your class through a password-protected platform. Please don’t resell, re-upload or share it publicly. For school-wide use, please email info@reallybyte.com.

Made by REALLYBYTE, the team behind japanese-castles.forts.im. Questions: info@reallybyte.com

This is a digital download: no physical item will be shipped.