Edo castle

• Built: 1457, Ôta Dôkan
• Burnt:1657 (tenshu)
• Reconstructed: Showa period (yagura, Ôtemmon)
• Location:Musashi province
• Type:Flatland-Mountain
• Other Names: 千代田城 (Chiyoda-jou), 皇居 (koukyo)
• Japanese:江戸城(Edo-jou)

Edo castle was the center of government for the Tokugawa shogunate, and chief shogunal residence, during the Edo period. Since the Meiji period, the Tokyo Imperial Palace has been located on its grounds.

History

First established by Ôta Dôkan in 1457, the castle was a secondary center of power within the Kantô, under Odawara castle, through much of the Sengoku period. Following the fall of Odawara in 1590, Tokugawa Ieyasu established Edo as his new center.

The castle then became the center of shogunal residence & rule, from 1603 onwards. The grand tenshukaku (tower keep), the tallest ever built in Japan at 58 meters high, was begun in 1607 and completed in 1638, following a series of repairs to the castle as a whole in 1622. It suffered severe damage from fire on a number of occasions, perhaps most grievously in the 1657 Great Meireki Fire, when the tenshu (main keep) was destroyed; the tenshu was never rebuilt.

The castle was guarded chiefly by the Koshôgumi (Inner Guard) and Shoinban (Bodyguards), who also defended the shogun himself when outside of the castle. Along with the Ôban (Great Guard) who guarded Nijô and Osaka castles, they constituted the three chief shogunate guard units. The commanders of these three units were selected from the highest-ranking hatamoto, but wielded little political power.

The castle burnt down again in 1873, and the Meiji Emperor, his Empress, and the Imperial Household Ministry relocated to the Akasaka Temporary Palace until 1888, when the castle's reconstruction as the Tokyo Imperial Palace was complete. In the intervening time before reconstruction began, the area in and around the castle grounds became overgrown with vegetation, and overrun with wildlife including foxes and badgers. One former retainer of Satsuma han lamented that it was "unbearable to look at."

Layout

The ôhiroma (great audience hall) was among the spaces closest to the entrance to the castle, and thus furthest from the center of the complex. It was used for audiences with foreign emissaries or powerful tozama daimyô, and for other highly formal ceremonies. By contrast, the shiroshoin ("white study / writing room"), closer to the castle's interior, was used for audiences with fudai daimyô and the shogun's relatives, while the kuroshoin ("black study / writing room"), closer still to the interior, was used for meetings with the shogun's most trusted retainers and highest-ranking officials. These two rooms were constructed in white wood and black lacquered wood, respectively.

The ôhiroma contained three platforms of different heights, called dan, allowing the shogun to sit not only at a distance from his formal visitors, but also physically above them. Only the highest-ranking retainers and guests were permitted to sit within the ôhiroma, and then only in certain dan, in accordance with their rank. Wrapping around an inner garden, and thus forming a U-shape with the three dan, were three antechambers, known respectively as the ni-, san-, and yon-no-ma. The shiroshoin was arranged similarly, though on a smaller scale, with two dan, two audience rooms, and two antechambers. Fudai daimyô too wealthy/powerful to be entrusted with the authority associated with the positions of rôjû or wakadoshiyori were seated in a nearby room known as the tamari no ma, adjacent to the ceremonial chambers, and closest of all the daimyô waiting rooms to the shogunal residence.

Beyond these various audience halls lay the shogun's personal quarters, along with the Ôoku.

Links

• npo-edojo.org Rebuilding Edo castle association
• Photos
• Edo Castle on Google Maps

References

• Nihon no Meijo Kojo Jiten
• Anne Walthall, "Hiding the shoguns: Secrecy and the nature of political authority in Tokugawa Japan," in Bernard Scheid and Mark Teeuwen (eds.) The Culture of Secrecy in Japanese Religion, Routledge (2006), 334-336.