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Everything That Has a Beginning Has an End
5th of April, 2025
A few weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to travel to Himeji and tour the Himeji Castle. It’s arguably Japan’s most beautiful castle, and I can’t believe it took me eight Japan trips to finally go there. It is pure white with dark grey roof tiles. It’s a castle that has survived centuries.
Built in 1346, it has survived epochs. Dynasties, civil wars, earthquakes, scientific breakthroughs, political upheaval, World War 1 and 2 – everything has passed by while it silently stood above the city of Himeji. While walking in the castle and touching the stones that make up the base, I imagined the people from centuries ago carrying the same stone to the place it is now.
Which also made me think of the quote from The Matrix.
“Everything that has a beginning has an end.”
Back in 1346, Japan was still deep in the feudal era. It wouldn’t change its system of governance (and social structure) until 1853 when the American black ships forced Japan to open up to the world.
The people from 1346 couldn’t have imagined that the world they lived in would one day vanish. That the country itself would be completely different.
Let me explain what I mean.
A laborer back in 1346 might haul the last stone to Himeji Castle for the day, then go into town and treat himself to a bowl of noodles from a famous local chef who has been making these noodles for decades. This noodle restaurant has been there for decades. It is a permanent fact of life.
The roads the horses travel on, the samurai and merchant social classes – it was all real. Real like the air we breathe and the food we eat.
And yet, centuries later, everything that was ‘real’ back then is forgotten.
The recipes that the noodle chef proudly perfected have been forgotten, his bloodline unknown.
The same thing will probably happen to everything we know today.
IKEA, Apple, Microsoft, etc—these are all our reality. Names, companies that are as real as the rain and the clouds. And yet, just like the noodle chef and his restaurant, all of it will disappear one day.
Blockbuster, Lehman Brothers, Credit Suisse – big institutions that felt permanent and real, all bit the dust, and memories of them are fading as we speak.
Just like the people from 1346 who were building Himeji Castle couldn’t imagine what life would be like 700 years later (try explaining the concept of a smartphone to someone back then, and they would burn you for promoting witchcraft), can we imagine what life would be like in 700 years? Many of us say we can imagine life in 700 years, but our imagination is limited.
People from Victorian England had posters of us traveling using balloons in the future.
And yet, some things remain the same. Himeji Castle, the great pyramids of Giza, Stone Henge. Every now and then, we manage to build something that lasts. And everything around it changes.
—Oniisanbomber
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