were
fortresses composed primarily of wood
and stone. They evolved from the wooden stockades of earlier
centuries, and came into their most well-known form in the 16th
century. Like
European castles, the castles
of Japan were built to guard important or strategic sites, such as
ports, river crossings, or crossroads, and almost always
incorporated the landscape into their defense.
Though they were built to last, and used more stone in their
construction than most Japanese buildings, castles were still
constructed primarily of
wood, and many were
destroyed over the years. This was especially true during the
Sengoku ('Warring States') period
(1467–1603), when many of these castles were first built. However,
many were rebuilt, either later in the Sengoku period, in the Edo
period (1603–1867) which followed, or more recently, as national
heritage sites or museums.
Today, there are more than one hundred
castles extant, or partially extant, in Japan
; it is
estimated that once there were five thousand. Some castles, such as
the ones at Matsue
and Kōchi
, both built
in 1611, remain extant in their original forms, not having suffered
any damage from siege or other threats. Hiroshima
Castle
, on the opposite end of the spectrum, was destroyed
in the atomic
bombing, and was rebuilt in 1958 as a museum.
The character '城', normally read as
shiro, is read as
jō when it is attached to a word, such as in the name of a
particular castle.
Thus, for example, Osaka Castle
is called Ōsaka-jō (大阪城) in Japanese.
History
Originally conceived of purely as fortresses, their primary purpose
being military defense, Japanese castles were originally placed in
strategic locations, along trade routes, roads and rivers. Though
castles continued to be built with these considerations in mind,
for centuries fortresses were also built to serve as centers of
governance. By the Sengoku period, they had come to serve as the
homes of
daimyo (feudal lords), and served to
impress and intimidate rivals not only with their defenses, but
with their size and elegant interiors, architecture and
decorations.
Oda Nobunaga was
one of the first to build one of these palace-like castles, at
Azuchi
Castle
in 1576; this was Japan's first castle to have a
tower keep (天守閣, tenshukaku), and it inspired both
Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Osaka Castle and Tokugawa
Ieyasu's Edo
Castle
. Azuchi served as the governing center of
Oda's territories, and as his lavish home, but it was also very
keenly and strategically placed. A short distance away from the
capital of Kyoto, which had long been a target of violence,
Azuchi's carefully chosen location allowed it a great degree of
control over the transportation and communication routes of Oda's
enemies.
Prior to the
Sengoku period (roughly,
the 16th century), most castles were called
yamashiro
(山城), or 'mountain castles'. Though most later castles were built
atop mountains or hills, these were built
from the
mountains. Trees and other foliage were cleared, and the stone and
dirt of the mountain itself was carved into rough fortifications.
Ditches were dug, to present obstacles to attackers, as well as to
allow boulders to be rolled down at attackers. Moats were created
by diverting mountain streams. Buildings were made primarily of
wattle and daub, using thatched
roofs, or, occasionally, wooden shingles. Small ports in the walls
or planks could be used to deploy bows or fire guns from. The main
weakness of this style was its general instability. Thatch caught
fire even more easily than wood, and weather and soil erosion
prevented structures from being particularly large or heavy.
Eventually, stone bases began to be used, encasing the hilltop in a
layer of fine pebbles, and then a layer of larger rocks over that,
with no mortar. This support allowed larger, heavier, and more
permanent buildings.
Early fortifications
The first fortifications in Japan were hardly what one generally
associates with the term "castles." Made primarily of earthworks
and wood, the earliest fortifications made far greater use of
natural defenses and
topography than
anything man-made. These
kōgoishi and
chiyashi
were never intended to be long-term defensive positions, let alone
residences; the native peoples of the archipelago built
fortifications when they were needed and abandoned the sites
afterwards.
The
Yamato people began to build
cities in earnest in the 7th century, complete with expansive
palace complexes, surrounded on four sides with walls and
impressive gates. Earthworks and wooden fortresses were also built
throughout the countryside to defend the territory from the native
Emishi,
Ainu and
other groups; unlike their primitive predecessors, these were
relatively permanent structures, built in peacetime. These were
largely built as extensions of natural features, and often
consisted of little more than earthworks and wooden
barricades.
The
Nara period (c.
710-794) fortress at
Dazaifu, from which all of Kyūshū
would be
governed and defended for centuries afterwards, was originally
constructed in this manner, and remnants can still be seen
today. A bulwark was constructed around the fortress to
serve as a moat to aid in the defense of the structure; in
accordance with military strategies and philosophies of the time,
it would only be filled with water at times of conflict. This was
called a
mizuki (水城), or "water fort". The character for
castle or fortress (城), up until sometime in the 9th century or
later, was read (pronounced)
ki, as in this example,
mizuki.
Though fairly basic in construction and appearance, these wooden
and earthwork structures were designed to impress just as much as
to function effectively against attack. Chinese and Korean
architecture influenced the design of Japanese buildings, including
fortifications, in this period. The remains or ruins of some of
these fortresses, decidedly different from what would come later,
can still be seen in certain parts of Kyūshū and
Tōhoku today.
Medieval period
The
Heian period (794–1185) saw a shift
from the need to defend the entire state from invaders to that of
lords defending individual mansions or territories from one
another.
Though battles were still continually fought
in the north-east portion of Honshū
(the Tōhoku
region) against native peoples, the rise of the
samurai warrior class towards the end of the period, and
various disputes between noble families jostling for power and
influence in the Imperial Court brought about further
upgrades. The primary defensive concern in the archipelago
was no longer native tribes or foreign invaders, but rather
internal conflicts within Japan, between rival
samurai clans or other increasingly large and
powerful factions, and as a result, defensive strategies and
attitudes were forced to change and adapt. As factions emerged and
loyalties shifted, clans and factions which had been helpers in the
service of the Imperial Court became enemies, and defensive
networks were broken, or altered through the shifting of
alliances.
The
Genpei War (1180–1185) between the
Minamoto and
Taira clans, and the
Nanboku-chō Wars (1336–1392) between the
Northern and Southern Imperial Courts are the primary conflicts
that define these developments during what is sometimes called
Japan's medieval period.
Fortifications were still made almost entirely out of wood, and
were based largely on earlier modes, and on Chinese and Korean
examples. But they began to become larger, to incorporate more
buildings, to accommodate larger armies, and to be conceived as
more long-lasting structures. This mode of fortification, developed
gradually from earlier modes and used throughout the wars of the
Heian period (770–1185), and deployed
to help defend the shores of Kyūshū from the
Mongol invasions of the 13th
century, reached its climax in the 1330s, during the Nanboku-chō
period.
Chihaya castle
and Akasaka castle,
permanent castle complexes containing a number of buildings but no
tall keep towers, and surrounded by wooden walls, were built by
Kusunoki Masashige to be as
militarily effective as possible, within the technology and designs
of the time.
The
Ashikaga shogunate,
established in the 1330s, had a tenuous grip on the archipelago,
and maintained relative peace for over a century. Castle design and
organization continued to develop under the Ashikaga shogunate, and
throughout the Sengoku period. Castle complexes became fairly
elaborate, containing a number of structures, some of which were
quite complex internally, as they now served as residences, command
centers, and a number of other purposes.
Sengoku
The
Ōnin War which broke out in 1467,
however, marked the beginning of a period of nearly 150 years of
widespread warfare (called the
Sengoku
period) between daimyō (feudal lords) across the entire
archipelago. For the duration of the Ōnin War (1467–1477), and into
the Sengoku period, the entire city of Kyoto became a battlefield,
and suffered extensive damage. Noble family mansions across the
city became increasingly fortified over this ten year period, and
attempts were made to isolate the city as a whole from the
marauding armies of samurai which would dominate the landscape for
over a century.
As regional officials and others became the daimyō, and the country
descended into war, they began to quickly add to their power bases,
securing their primary residences, and constructing additional
fortifications in tactically advantageous or important locations.
Originally conceived as purely defensive (martial) structures, or
as retirement bunkers where a lord could safely ride out periods of
violence in his lands, over the course of the Sengoku period, many
of these mountain castles developed into permanent residences, with
elaborate exteriors and lavish interiors.
The beginnings of the shapes and styles now considered to be
stereotypical "classic" Japanese castle design emerged at this
time, and castle towns (城下町,
jōkamachi, lit. "town below castle")
also appeared, grew and developed. Despite these developments,
though, for most of the Sengoku period castles remained essentially
larger, more complex versions of the simple wooden fortifications
of centuries earlier.
It was not until the last thirty years of the
period of war that drastic changes would occur to bring about the
emergence of the type of castle typified by Himeji castle
, the Imperial
Palace
, and other castles surviving today. This
period of war culminated in the Azuchi-Momoyama period, which saw
some of the largest battles in the pre-modern world, and saw great
advances in military technology, strategy and tactics.
Azuchi-Momoyama period
Unlike in
Europe, where the advent of
cannon spelled the end of the age of castles,
Japanese castle-building was spurred, ironically, by the
introduction of firearms. Though firearms first appeared in Japan
in 1543, and castle design almost immediately saw developments in
reaction, Azuchi castle, built in the 1570s, was the first example
of a largely new type of castle, on a larger, grander scale than
those which came before, boasting a large stone base (武者返し,
musha-gaeshi), a complex arrangement of concentric
bailey (丸,
maru), and a
tall central tower. In addition, the castle was located on a plain,
rather than on a densely forested mountain, and relied more heavily
on architecture and manmade defenses than on its natural
environment for protection. These features, along with the general
appearance and organization of the Japanese castle, which had
matured by this point, have come to define the stereotypical
Japanese castle.
Along with Hideyoshi's Fushimi-Momoyama castle
, Azuchi lends its name to the brief Azuchi-Momoyama period (roughly
1568–1600) in which these types of castles, used for military
defense, flourished.
The introduction of the
arquebus brought
dramatic shifts in battle tactics and military attitudes in Japan.
Though these shifts were complex and numerous, one of the concepts
key to changes in castle design at this time was that of battle at
range. Though archery duels had traditionally preceded samurai
battles since the
Heian period or
earlier, exchanges of fire with arquebuses had a far more dramatic
effect on the outcome of the battle; hand-to-hand fighting, while
still extremely common, was diminished by the coordinated use of
firearms.
Oda Nobunaga, one of the most expert
commanders in the coordinated tactical use of the new weapon, built
his Azuchi castle, which has since come to be seen as the paradigm
of the new phase of castle design, with these considerations in
mind. The stone foundation resisted damage from arquebus balls
better than wood or earthworks, and the overall larger scale of the
complex added to the difficulty of destroying it. Tall towers and
the castle's location on a plain provided greater visibility from
which the garrison could employ their guns, and the complex set of
courtyards and baileys provided additional opportunities for
defenders to retake portions of the castle that had fallen.
Cannon were rare in Japan due to the expense of obtaining them from
foreigners, and the difficulty in casting such weapons themselves
as the foundries used to make bronze temple bells were simply
unsuited to the production of iron or steel cannon. The few cannon
that were used were smaller and weaker than those used in European
sieges, and many of them were in fact taken from European ships and
remounted to serve on land; where the advent of cannon and other
artillery brought an end to stone castles in Europe, wooden ones
would remain in Japan for several centuries longer. A few castles
boasted 'wall guns', but these are presumed to have been little
more than glorified arquebuses, lacking the power of a true cannon.
When
siege weapons were used in Japan, they were most often trebuchets or catapults in
the Chinese
style, and they were used as anti-personnel
weapons. There is no record that the goal of destroying
walls ever entered into the strategy of a Japanese siege. In fact,
it was often seen to be more honorable, and more tactically
advantageous on the part of the defender for him to lead his forces
into battle outside the castle. When battles were not resolved in
this way, out in the open, sieges were almost always undertaken
purely by denying supplies to the castle, an effort which could
last years, but involved little more than surrounding the castle
with a force of sufficient size until a surrender could be
elicited.
The crucial development that spurred the emergence of a new type of
defensive architecture was, thus, not cannon, but the advent of
firearms.
Arquebus firing squads and
cavalry charges could overcome wooden stockades with relative ease,
and so stone castles came into use.
Azuchi was destroyed within years of its completion, but it
nevertheless ushered in a new period of castle-building; among the
many castles built in the ensuing years was Hideyoshi's
Simon castle, completed in 1583. This
incorporated all the new features and construction philosophies of
Azuchi, and was larger, more prominently located, and
longer-lasting. It was the last bastion of resistance against the
establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate (see
Siege of Osaka), and remained prominent if
not politically or militarily significant, as the city of
Osaka grew up around it, developing into one of
Japan's primary commercial centers.
Though stone was sometimes used to shore up defenses or foundations
for a few centuries prior, Azuchi's distinctive style of stone base
was the first of its kind, and was seen in every castle constructed
afterwards. The Japanese used cannon very infrequently, and thus,
despite the relatively fragile wooden buildings which comprised the
castle complex, the heavy stone foundations were often more than
sufficient to repel arquebus fire. Whether intentionally or not,
these foundations also proved very resilient against Japan's
frequent earthquakes.
This period saw the climax of earlier developments towards larger
buildings, more complex and concentrated construction, and more
elaborate design, both externally and in the castles' interiors.
European castle design began to have an impact as well in this
period, though the castle had long been in decline in Europe by
this point.
In Japanese politics and warfare, the castle served not only as a
fortress, but as the residence of the daimyō, or feudal lord, and
as a symbol of his power. Fushimi-Momoyama castle, which was meant
to serve as a luxurious retirement home for Toyotomi Hideyoshi,
serves as a popular example of this development. Though it
resembled other castles of the period on the outside, the inside
was extremely lavishly decorated, and the castle is famous for
having a tea room covered in gold leaf. Fushimi was by no means an
exception, and many castles bore varying amounts of golden
ornamentation on their exteriors. Osaka castle was only one of a
number of castles which boasted golden roof tiles, and sculptures
of fish, cranes, and tigers. Certainly, outside of such displays of
precious metals, the overall aesthetics of the architecture and
interiors remained extremely important, as they do in most aspects
of Japanese culture.
Some especially powerful families controlled not one, but a whole
string of castles, consisting of a main castle (
honjō) and
a number of satellite castles (
shijō) spread throughout
their territory. Though the
shijō were sometimes
full-fledged castles with stone bases, they were more frequently
fortresses of wood and earthenworks. Often, a system of fire
beacons,
drums, or
conch
shells was set up to enable communications between these
castles over a great distance.
The Hōjō
family's Odawara
Castle
and its network of satellites was one of the most
powerful examples of this honjō-shijō system; the Hōjō
controlled so much land that a hierarchy of sub-satellite networks
was created
Korea
Toyotomi Hideyoshi's invasions of
Korea took place between 1592 and 1598, at the same time as the
high point in Azuchi-Momoyama style castle construction within
Japan. Many Japanese castles (called Wajō
倭城 in Japanese and Waeseong in Korean) were built along
the southern shores of Korea
. All
that remains of these castles today are the stone bases.
Edo period
The
Sengoku period, roughly a century
and a half of war which saw great changes and developments in
military tactics and equipment, as well as the emergence of the
Azuchi-Momoyama style castle, was followed by the
Edo period, over two hundred and fifty years of
peace, beginning around 1600-1615 and ending in 1868. Edo period
castles, including those which survived from the preceding
Azuchi-Momoyama period, therefore no longer had defense against
outside forces as their primary purpose. Rather, they served
primarily as luxurious homes for the daimyō, their families and
retainers, and to protect the daimyō, and his power base, against
peasant uprisings and other internal insurrections. The
Tokugawa shogunate, in order to forestall
the amassing of power on the part of the daimyō, enforced a number
of regulations limiting the number of castles to one per
han (feudal domain), with a few
exceptions, and a number of other policies including that of
sankin kōtai. Though
there were also, at times, restrictions on the size and furnishings
of these castles, and although many daimyō grew quite poor later in
the period, daimyō nevertheless sought as much as possible to use
their castles as representations of their power and wealth. The
general architectural style did not change much from more martial
times, but the furnishings and indoor arrangements could be quite
lavish.
This restriction on the number of castles allowed each
han
had profound effects not only politically, as intended, but
socially, and in terms of the castles themselves. Where members of
the samurai class had previously lived in or around the great
number of castles sprinkling the landscape, they now became
concentrated in the capitals of the
han and in
Edo; the resulting concentration of samurai in the
cities, and their near-total absence from the countryside and from
cities that were not feudal capitals (Kyoto and Osaka in
particular) were important features of the social and cultural
landscape of the Edo period. Meanwhile, the castles in the
han capitals inevitably expanded, not only to accommodate
the increased number of samurai they now had to support, but also
to represent the prestige and power of the daimyō, now consolidated
into a single castle. Edo castle, expanded by a factor of twenty
between roughly 1600 and 1636 after becoming the shogunal seat.
Though obviously something of an exception, the shogun not being a
regular daimyō, it nevertheless serves as a fine example of these
developments. These vastly consolidated and expanded castles, and
the great number of samurai living, by necessity, in and around
them, thus led to an explosion in urban growth in 17th century
Japan.
As
contact with Western powers increased in the middle of the 19th
century, some castles such as Goryōkaku castle
in Hokkaidō
were turned once again to martial purposes.
No longer needed to resist samurai cavalry charges, or arquebus
squads, attempts were made to convert Goryōkaku, and a handful of
other castles across the country, into defensible positions against
the cannon of Western naval vessels.
Castles in Japan today
All castles, along with the feudal domains themselves, were turned
over to the
Meiji government in the
1871
abolition of the han
system. During the
Meiji
Restoration, these castles were viewed as symbols of the
previous ruling elite, and nearly 2,000 of the remaining castles
were dismantled or destroyed. Many of the remaining castles in
Japan today are reconstructions. Some of them are made of concrete
designed to resemble the original wooden structures. All castles,
along with a number of sites of historical or natural significance,
are protected under a series of laws promulgated for that purpose.
The first came in 1919, and was followed ten years later by the
1929 National Treasure Preservation Law.
Some castles were destroyed in
World War
II including Hiroshima Castle. However, many of the structures
remaining after the Meiji Restoration were damaged.
Architecture and defenses
Japanese castles came to be built in a variety of environments, but
all were constructed within variations of a fairly well-defined
architectural scheme.
Yamashiro(山城), or "mountain castles"
were the most common, and provided the best natural defenses.
However, castles built on flat plains (平城,
hirashiro) and
those built on lowlands hills (平山城,
hirayamashiro) were
not uncommon, and a few very isolated castles were even built on
small natural or artificial islands in lakes or the sea, or along
the shore.
Walls and foundations
Japanese castles were almost always built atop a hill or mound, and
often an artificial mound would be created for this purpose. This
not only aided greatly in the defense of the castle, but also
allowed it a greater view over the surrounding land, and made the
castle look more impressive and intimidating. In some ways, the use
of stone, and the development of the architectural style of the
castle, was a natural step up from the wooden stockades of earlier
centuries. The hills gave Japanese castles sloping walls, which
many argue helped (incidentally) to defend them from Japan's
frequent earthquakes. There is some disagreement among scholars as
to whether or not these stone bases were easy to scale; some argue
that the stones made easy hand- and footholds., while others retort
that the bases were steep, and individual stones could be as large
as twenty feet high, making them difficult if not next to
impossible to scale.
Thus, a number of measures were invented to keep attackers off the
walls and to stop them from climbing the castle, including pots of
hot sand, gun emplacements, and arrow slits from which defenders
could fire at attackers while still enjoying nearly full cover.
Spaces in the walls for firing from were called
sama;
Arrow slits were called
yasama, gun emplacements
tepposama and the rarer, later spaces for cannon were
known as
taihosama Unlike in European castles, which had
walkways built into the walls, in Japanese castles, the walls'
timbers would be left sticking inwards, and planks would simply be
placed over them to provide a surface for archers or gunners to
stand on. This standing space was often called the
ishi uchi
tana or "stone throwing shelf." Other tactics to hinder
attackers' approaches to the walls included
caltrops, bamboo spikes planted into the ground at
a diagonal, or the use of felled trees, their branches facing
outwards and presenting an obstacle to an approaching army. Many
castles also had trapdoors built into their towers, and some even
suspended logs from ropes, to be dropped on attackers.
The
Anō family from
Ōmi Province were the foremost castle
architects in the late 16th century, and were renowned for building
the 45-degree stone bases, which began to be used for keeps,
gatehouses, and corner towers, not just for the castle mound as a
whole.
Japanese castles, like their European cousins, featured massive
stone walls and large moats. However, walls were restricted to the
castle compound itself; they were never extended around a
jōkamachi (castle town), and only very rarely were built
along borders. This comes from Japan's long history of not fearing
invasion, and stands in stark contrast to philosophies of defensive
architecture in Europe, China, and many other parts of the world.
Even within the walls, a very different architectural style and
philosophy applied, as compared to the corresponding European
examples. A number of tile-roofed buildings, constructed from
plaster over skeletons of wooden beams, lay within the walls, and
in later castles, some of these structures would be placed atop
smaller stone-covered mounds. These wooden structures were
surprisingly fireproof, as a result of the plaster used on the
walls. Sometimes a small portion of a building would be constructed
of stone, providing a space to store and contain gunpowder.
Though the area inside the walls could be quite large, it did not
encompass fields or peasants' homes, and the vast majority of
commoners likewise lived outside the castle walls. Samurai lived
almost exclusively within the compound, those of higher rank living
closer to the daimyō's central keep. In some larger castles, such
as Himeji, a secondary inner moat was constructed between this more
central area of residences and the outer section where
lower-ranking samurai kept their residences. Only a very few
commoners, those directly in the employ and service of the daimyo
or his retainers, lived within the walls, and they were often
designated portions of the compound to live in, according to their
occupation, for purposes of administrative efficiency. Overall, it
can be said that castle compounds contained only those structures
belonging to the daimyo and his retainers, and those important to
the administration of the domain.
Layout
The primary method of defense lay in the arrangement of the
baileys, called
maru (丸)
or .
Maru, meaning 'round' or 'circle' in most contexts,
here refers to sections of the castle, separated by courtyards.
Some castles were arranged in concentric circles, each
maru lying within the last, while others lay their
maru in a row; most used some combination of these two
layouts. Since most Japanese castles were built atop a mountain or
hill, the topography of the location determined the layout of the
maru.
The 'most central bailey,' containing the keep, was called
honmaru (本丸), and the second and third were called
ni-no-maru (二の丸) and
san-no-maru (三の丸)
respectively. These areas contained the main tower and residence of
the
daimyō, the storerooms (
kura 蔵 or 倉), and the living quarters
of the garrison. Larger castles would have additional encircling
sections, called
soto-guruwa or
sōguruwa. At many
castles still standing today in Japan, only the
honmaru
remains.
Nijō Castle
in Kyoto is an interesting exception, in that the
ni-no-maru still stands, while all that remains of the
honmaru is the stone base.
The arrangement of gates and walls sees one of the key tactical
differences in design between the Japanese castle and its European
counterpart. A complex system of a great many gates and courtyards
leading up to the central keep serves as one of the key defensive
elements. This was, particularly in the case of larger or more
important castles, very carefully arranged to impede an invading
army and to allow fallen outer portions of the compound to be
regained with relative ease by the garrisons of the inner portion.
The defenses of Himeji castle are an excellent example of this.
Since sieges rarely involved the wholesale destruction of walls,
castle designers and defenders could anticipate the ways in which
an invading army would move through the compound, from one gate to
another. As an invading army passed through the outer rings of the
Himeji compound, it would find itself directly under windows from
which rocks, hot sand, or other things could be dropped, and also
in a position which made them easy shots for archers in the
castle's towers. Gates were often placed at tight corners, forcing
a
bottleneck effect upon the invading
force, or even simply at right angles within a square courtyard.
Passageways would often lead to blind alleys, and the layout would
often prevent visitors (or invaders) from being able to see ahead
to where different passages might lead. All in all, these measures
made it impossible to enter a castle and travel straight to the
keep. Invading armies, as well as, presumably, anyone else entering
the castle, would be forced to travel around and around the
complex, more or less in a spiral, gradually approaching the
center, all while the defenders prepared for battle, and rained
down arrows and worse upon the attackers.
All of that said however, castles were rarely forcibly invaded. It
was considered more honorable, and more appropriate, for a
defender's army to sally forth from the castle to confront his
attackers. When this did not happen, sieges were most often
performed not through the use of siege weapons or other methods of
forced entry, but by surrounding the enemy castle and simply
denying food, water, or other supplies to the fortress. As this
tactic could often take months or even years to see results, the
besieging army sometimes even built their own castle or fortress
nearby. This being the case, "the castle was less a defensive
fortress than a symbol of defensive capacity with which to impress
or discourage the enemy". It of course also served as the lord's
residence, a center of authority and governance, and in various
ways a similar function to military
barracks.
Buildings
The castle keep, usually three to five stories tall, is known as
the
tenshukaku ( 天守閣 ), and may be linked to a number of
smaller buildings of two or three stories. Some castles, notably
Azuchi, had keeps of as many as seven stories. The tallest and most
elaborate building in the complex, and often also the largest, the
keep was the residence of the daimyō and his central command post.
Interestingly, the number of stories and building layout as
perceived from outside the keep rarely corresponds to the actual
internal layout; for example, what appeared to be the third story
from outside may have in fact been the fourth. This certainly must
have helped to confuse attackers, preventing them from knowing
which story or which window to attack, and likely disorienting the
attacker somewhat once he made his way in through a window.
The least militarily equipped of the castle buildings, the keep was
defended by the walls and towers, and its ornamental role was never
ignored; few buildings in Japan, least of all castle keeps, were
ever built with attention to function purely over artistic and
architectural form. Keeps were meant to be impressive not only in
their size and in implying military might, but also in their beauty
and the implication of a daimyō's wealth. Though obviously well
within the general sphere of
Japanese architecture, much of the
aesthetics and design of the castle was quite distinct from styles
or influences seen in Shintō shrines, Buddhist temples, or Japanese
homes. The intricate
gables and windows are a
fine example of this.
On those occasions when a castle was infiltrated or invaded by
enemy forces, the central keep served as the last bastion of
refuge, and a point from which counter-attacks and attempts to
retake the castle could be made. If the castle ultimately fell,
certain rooms within the keep would more often than not become the
site of the
seppuku (ritual
suicide) of the daimyō, his family, and closest retainers.
Palisades lined the top of the castle's
walls, and patches of trees, usually
pines,
symbolic of eternity or immortality, were planted along them. These
served the dual purpose of adding natural beautiful scenery to a
daimyō's home, representing part of his garden, and also obscuring
the insides of the castle compound from spies or scouts.
A variety of towers or turrets, called
yagura (櫓), placed at the corners of the walls,
over the gates, or in other positions, served a number of purposes.
Though some were used for the obvious defensive purposes, and as
watchtowers, others served as water towers or for moon-viewing. As
the residences of purportedly wealthy and powerful lords, towers
for moon-viewing, balconies for taking in the scenery, tea rooms
and gardens proliferated. These were by no means solely martial
structures, but many elements served dual purposes. Gardens and
orchards, for example, though primarily simply for the purpose of
adding beauty and a degree of luxuriousness to the lord's
residence, could also provide water and fruit in case of supplies
running down due to siege, as well as wood for a variety of
purposes.
See also
Gallery
Aerial views of Japanese castles reveal a consistent military
strategy which informs the over-all planning for each unique
location.
File:Imperial place Japan 1979 air.jpg|
Aerial view of Edo
Castle -- today the location of Tokyo
Imperial Palace
File:Sunpu Castle air.jpg| Aerial view of
Sunpu
Castle
File:Nagoya Castle aerial photo.jpg| Aerial
view of Nagoya
Castle
File:Fukuoka Castle air.jpg| Aerial view of
Fukuoka
Castle
File:Hirosaki Castle aerial photo.jpg|
Aerial view of Hirosaki
Castle
File:Hirado Castle air.jpg| Aerial view of
Hirado
Castle
File:Takamatsu Castle air nawabari.jpg|
Aerial view of
Takamatsu
Castle , with superimposed lines representing the original
castle
Notes and references
- The term samurai, deriving from saburai (one
who serves), refers both to the armed feudal retainers who fought
for their lords in feudal Japan, but also to the noble warrior
class as a whole. Thus, unlike the European knight, the samurai was a samurai by virtue of
his birth, retaining this status regardless of his rank. The
samurai bore close ties to his clan (the noble family of his
lineage), and to other clans to which his own owed fealty, serving
loyally in the defense of his lord's lands, in attacks of enemy
lands, or in a great number of other ways. For more on the role of
the samurai class and its development over time, see Samurai.
- The only invasion attempts upon Japan in the 2nd millennium,
these had a not insignificant impact upon defenses in and around
Hakata, where the Mongols landed, but are
exceptions to the trend of internal warfare which guided military
developments in pre-modern Japan.
- Sansom, George. A History of Japan 1334-1615.
Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1961. pp223-227.
- Satsuma
Domain in Kyūshū, one of the wealthiest and most powerful
domains, doled out sub-fiefs and was allowed by the shogunate to
maintain a number of subsidiary castles within their domain; this
came largely out of their power and the inability of the shogunate
to effectively enforce many policies in Satsuma. (Sakai, Robert.
“Feudal Society and Modern Leadership in Satsuma-han.” Journal
of Asian Studies 16:3 (May 1957), p366-7.)
- Ratti, Oscar and Adele Westbrook (1973). Secrets of the
Samurai. Edison, NJ: Castle Books.
- Consider, for example, defenses such as Hadrian's Wall and the
Great Wall of China, as well as the city
walls built throughout Europe and England across history, by the
Romans and for
centuries afterwards, along with comparable examples in China and
elsewhere.
- While maru (丸) most literally translates simply to
"round" or "circle", kuruwa denotes an area enclosed by
earthworks or other walls, and was a term also used to denote the
enclosed red-light districts such as the
Yoshiwara during the
Edo period. As it relates to castles, most castles had three
maru, main baileys, which could be called kuruwa;
additional areas beyond this would be called sotoguruwa
(外廓), or "kuruwa which are outside."
Literature
External links
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