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Edo castle

Revision as of 14:30, 10 January 2015 by LordAmeth (talk | contribs)
  • 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 during the accordingly-named Edo period, and chief residence of the Tokugawa shoguns. 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.[1]

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.[2] 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."[3]

 
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Layout

The Ôtemon 大手門 was the main gate leading into the honmaru (central bailey) of the castle, where the majority of administrative and residential spaces were located. Low- to middle-ranking samurai were obliged to dismount from their horses or palanquins before passing over the bridge leading to this gate. Those granted an exception were known as jôyo ijô (乗輿以上, lit. "palanquin riders and up"), and included those over 500 koku in income, and those over fifty years of age. After passing through the Ôtemon, one would cross another bridge, then pass through another series of gates - the Ôtesan-no-mon, Chûnomon, and Chûjakumon - before coming to the entrance hall (genkan) of the honmaru palace. The highest-ranking visitors to the castle, including members of the Gosanke and the abbot of Nikkô's Rinnô-ji[4], were permitted to remain in their palanquins up until the Chûnomon, where they too had to dismount. Beyond each of these two dismounting points, visitors were restricted in the size of entourage they could bring along with them. For example, a kunimochi daimyô such as the Shimazu clan lord of Satsuma han could only bring with him six samurai retainers, one sandal-bearer, two hasamibako (luggage) carriers, and four palanquin carriers past the Ôtemon, and then had to leave three of those samurai retainers, half the luggage carriers (along with the luggage itself), and all of the palanquin carriers (along with the palanquin) at the second dismounting point. Finally, upon reaching the entrance hall (genkan), even such a high-ranking daimyô as this would be forced to enter the castle alone. This was perhaps in part a security measure, but was also a great show of the shogun's power (to be able to require that of even such a powerful lord), and of the daimyô's acknowledgement of that power & authority, and willing submission to it. Lower-ranking daimyô, as well as other official visitors to the castle, were restricted to even smaller entourages during this brief journey between the Ôtemon and the castle genkan.[5]

Upon entering the genkan, one would turn left to enter the ôhiroma (大広間, great audience hall). Consisting of a number of connected rooms roughly 500 tatami mats in area,[6] in total, the ôhiroma 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.[7]

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.[8]

On special occasions, such as New Year's, members of the gosanke, gosankyô, and other shogunal relatives, along with others of the 4th rank and above, waited in various rooms of the castle and met with the shogun in the shiroshoin one at a time, to offer their New Year's greetings. Following these individual audiences, the shogun would move to the lower dan (gedan) of the ôhiroma, and stand there as fusuma (sliding doors) were opened, allowing those of rank five and below, gathered in the ni-no-ma, to be seen by the shogun; all those assembled then bowed low, performing their greetings to the shogun all at once.[6]

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

 
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Links

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.
  1. ↑ Mitani Hiroshi, David Noble (trans.), Escape from Impasse, International House of Japan (2006), xxx.
  2. ↑ Takashi Fujitani, Splendid Monarchy, University of California Press (1996), 66-67.
  3. ↑ Fujitani, 41.
  4. ↑ A Buddhist temple associated with the Tokugawa's Nikkô Tôshôgû shrine, its head was typically an Imperial prince.
  5. ↑ Fukai Masaumi, Edo-jô wo yomu, Harashobô (1997), 18-19.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Fukai, 22.
  7. ↑ Arai Hakuseki, Joyce Ackroyd (trans.), Told Round a Brushwood Fire, University of Tokyo Press (1979), 289n38.
  8. ↑ Mitani, xxv.
 
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