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[[File:Ohiroma.JPG|center|thumb|750px|A model of the ''Ôhiroma'', Edo castle's largest audience hall, on display at the Edo-Tokyo Museum]]

[[File:Ohiroma.JPG|center|thumb|750px|A model of the ''Ôhiroma'', Edo castle's largest audience hall, on display at the Edo-Tokyo Museum]]

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. These were arranged from north to south, with the shogun sitting in the north, facing south, much as the Chinese emperor did at [[Forbidden City|imperial palaces in China]]. 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.<ref>Mitani, xxv.</ref> The far north wall of the Ôhiroma was adorned with a large painting of a pine tree, which would have appeared to canopy the shogun as he sat there in the upper ''dan''; the pine, being long-lived and evergreen, was meant to represent the eternal power of the shogunate. To the shogun's left (northeast corner of the hall) was a small set of doors, where he and others would enter and exit the room, as well as a small ''tokonoma'' filled with ''chigaidana'' for displaying various objects of seasonal or occasional significance. These doors were inconspicuously painted with birds sleeping on branches of ''nanten'' (nandina) flowers; ''nanten'' puns on 「難転」　(''nanten'', "turning away danger"), while the sleeping birds represent peace, such as the shogunate enforced throughout the realm.<ref>Timon Screech, ''Obtaining Images'', University of Hawaii Press (2012), 39-40, 45.</ref>  

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. These were arranged from north to south, with the shogun sitting in the north, facing south, much as the Chinese emperor did at [[Forbidden City|imperial palaces in China]]. 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.<ref>Mitani, xxv.</ref> The far north wall of the Ôhiroma was adorned with a large painting of a pine tree, which would have appeared to canopy the shogun as he sat there in the upper ''dan''; the pine, being long-lived and evergreen, was meant to represent the eternal power of the shogunate. To the shogun's left (northeast corner of the hall) was a small set of doors, where he and others would enter and exit the room, as well as a small ''tokonoma'' filled with ''chigaidana'' for displaying various objects of seasonal or occasional significance. These doors were inconspicuously painted with birds sleeping on branches of ''nanten'' (nandina) flowers; ''nanten'' puns on 「難転」　(''nanten'', "turning away danger"), while the sleeping birds represent peace, such as the shogunate enforced throughout the realm.<ref>Timon Screech, ''Obtaining Images'', University of Hawaii Press (2012), 39-40, 45.</ref> This upper ''dan'', along with the rest of the hall, was adorned with a continuing composition of [[shochikubai|pines, bamboo, and plums]], and cranes and tortoises, all symbols of the strength and longevity of Tokugawa rule. The ceilings featured images of [[phoenixes]], various flowers, and a spiral design known as ''karakusa moyô'' (lit. "Chinese grasses design"). The entryways surrounding the hall also featured motifs of [[peonies]], ''[[kirin]]'', [[monkeys]] in snow, lions, and tigers by waterfalls. The ''ni-no-ma'' ("second room"), attached perpendicular to the main sections of the Great Audience Hall, featured a particularly large and impressive painting of a pine tree. Its trunk was located on the north wall, and its branches extended around to the sliding doors on both the east and west sides. Cranes and harvested fields appeared on the walls of the ''san-no-ma'' ("third room"), and the ''yon-no-ma'' ("fourth room") featured a wintry snow scene. Later attached rooms (''ato-no-ma'') featured spring and summer scenes. This entire program of paintings is believed to have been designed originally by [[Kano Tanyu|Kanô Tan'yû]], and was reproduced faithfully each time the palace burned down and was rebuilt.<ref>Chino Kaori 千野香織, “Edojō shōhekiga no shitae” 「江戸城障壁画の下絵」, in ''Shōgun no goten – Edojō shōhekiga no shitae'' 将軍の御殿－江戸城障壁画の下絵－, Nagoya: Tokugawa Art Museum (1988), 114-115.</ref>

''Daimyô'' and others were divided, by rank, into association with particular waiting rooms, where they would be escorted upon entering the ''honmaru'' palace, and where they would wait until they were called upon, e.g. in the case of coming up to the castle for a formal audience with the shogun.<ref>Gallery label, "[https://www.flickr.com/photos/toranosuke/11269336136/ Daimyô no kakushiki]," Edo-Tokyo Museum.; Yamamoto Hirofumi, ''Edo jidai - shôgun bushi tachi no jitsuzô'', Tokyo Shoseki (2008), 67.</ref> These room assignments were known as ''shikôseki'' 伺候席, or "seats [where one sat] in attendance." Though ''daimyô'' were called upon for their audiences in a set order in accordance with rank and status, they were not actually assigned seats within each of these waiting rooms; while waiting, they arranged themselves freely.<ref>Ogawa Kyôichi 小川恭一, ''Shogun omemie sahô'' 将軍お目見え作法, ''Tokyojin'' 東京人 (1995/1), 82.</ref> The shogun's ability to keep even powerful ''daimyô'' waiting, whether in these waiting rooms, or in the audience hall itself, further impressed upon the ''daimyô'' their submission to his power.<ref>Walthall, 342.</ref>

''Daimyô'' and others were divided, by rank, into association with particular waiting rooms, where they would be escorted upon entering the ''honmaru'' palace, and where they would wait until they were called upon, e.g. in the case of coming up to the castle for a formal audience with the shogun.<ref>Gallery label, "[https://www.flickr.com/photos/toranosuke/11269336136/ Daimyô no kakushiki]," Edo-Tokyo Museum.; Yamamoto Hirofumi, ''Edo jidai - shôgun bushi tachi no jitsuzô'', Tokyo Shoseki (2008), 67.</ref> These room assignments were known as ''shikôseki'' 伺候席, or "seats [where one sat] in attendance." Though ''daimyô'' were called upon for their audiences in a set order in accordance with rank and status, they were not actually assigned seats within each of these waiting rooms; while waiting, they arranged themselves freely.<ref>Ogawa Kyôichi 小川恭一, ''Shogun omemie sahô'' 将軍お目見え作法, ''Tokyojin'' 東京人 (1995/1), 82.</ref> The shogun's ability to keep even powerful ''daimyô'' waiting, whether in these waiting rooms, or in the audience hall itself, further impressed upon the ''daimyô'' their submission to his power.<ref>Walthall, 342.</ref>