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''Jôkamachi'' (lit. "towns below castles") were cities which grew up around [[castles]], especially those which served as a daimyô's "seat," the political center of a ''[[han]]'' (domain) in the [[Edo period]].
''Jôkamachi'' (lit. "towns below castles") were cities which grew up around [[castles]], especially those which served as a daimyô's "seat," the political center of a ''[[han]]'' (domain) in the [[Edo period]].
Castle towns in the 17th century numbered over two hundred.<ref>Moriya, Katsuhisa. Ronald Toby (trans.) "Urban Networks and Information Networks." in Chie Nakane and Shinzaburô Ôishi (eds.) ''Tokugawa Japan: The Social and Economic Antecedents of Modern Japan''. University of Tokyo Press, 1990. p104.</ref>
Prior to the 1570s, castles were primarily defensive structures, rather than being the permanent political centers and ''daimyô'' residences they would later become. In 1570, the Imperial capital of [[Kyoto]] and the bustling ports of [[Nagasaki]] and [[Sakai]] were among the only cities of any appreciable size in Japan. This changed dramatically, and rapidly, over the course of the [[Azuchi-Momoyama period]] (c. 1573-1598) and the early decades of the 17th century. ''Daimyô'' seats became more permanent, and as ''daimyô'' encouraged merchants into their domains (and, especially, into their castle towns) in order to claim for themselves the economic and cultural benefits of such merchant activity within their borders, many castle towns grew into cities of considerable size, population, and economic power.
Castle towns in the 17th century numbered over two hundred,<ref>Moriya, Katsuhisa. Ronald Toby (trans.) "Urban Networks and Information Networks." in Chie Nakane and Shinzaburô Ôishi (eds.) ''Tokugawa Japan: The Social and Economic Antecedents of Modern Japan''. University of Tokyo Press, 1990. p104.</ref> and by 1700 Japan was home to some of the largest cities in the world. [[Edo]] at that time is believed to have had a population of roughly one million; [[Osaka]] and [[Kyoto]] were home to roughly 300,000, and the ''daimyô'' seats of [[Nagoya]] and [[Kanazawa]] boasted around 100,000 people each.
==References==
==References==