Japan's Modern Castles Episode Two: Osaka Castle (大阪城)

[@atomixfang]

I wish I had found your channel before I visited japan. Ill be ready for my next visit though. Thank you for the great work!

[@japansmoderncastles5810]

Thanks!! I hope you had a great trip!

[@erinreid4164]

Thank you so much for sharing your expertise here! I was visiting Osaka Castle today and I left feeling unsure of what it actually was used for historically😅 This video was super helpful! Thank you!

[@japansmoderncastles5810]

Thanks for the note! I hope you had a good time at the castle!!

[@MishimaYukio17]

I wrote the following as part of an article series on castles which should NOT be rebuilt: Why Osaka Castle's Historical Tenshu should never be rebuilt, in summary: Osaka Castle was originally built between 1583 and 1597 by Toyotomi Hideyoshi on the site of the former stronghold of Ishiyama-Honganji. It then became the seat of Toyotomi Hideyori, Hideyoshi's heir. The tower built at Ōsakajō by the Toyotomi was splendid, the castle superseding Oda Nobunaga's Azuchijō in grandeur. Whilst Tokugawa Ieyasu had been Japan’s undisputed leader since the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, the Toyotomi clan remained a potential threat to him. After first trying diplomatic manoeuvres (Hideyori was married to Sen-hime, Ieyasu’s granddaughter), Ieyasu attacked Ōsakajō in the winter of 1614 after Hideyori was reportedly amassing troops. Hideyori was known to compose calligraphy composed of characters meaning “peace” and such, so if I were Ieyasu I’d be suspicious too. The castle was besieged and Hideyori agreed to dismantle the defences at the castle. Bakufu forces began filling in Ōsakajō’s outer moat, but by next summer it was reported that Hideyori had begun re-digging the moat and stopped government men from their work, and that he was amassing even more troops. This enraged Ieyasu and he marched another army down to Ōsaka. The Toyotomi Loyalists planned to make up for their lack of numbers (their army was half the size of the Tokugawa side) with a surprise attack. The plan was to have Akashi Morishige attack from the flank, causing disorder, whilst Sanada Yukimura and Mori Katsunaga, leader of the Ōsaka Rōnin, would then attack from the front. Hideyori would then emerge from Ōsakajō and finish off the enemy force. However, the Eastern Army scouted and engaged Akashi before he could attack. The Rōnin began shooting the enemy and when Sanada ordered them to fall back they instead advanced with gusto. Sanada followed, conceding to their bloodlust, and the battle raged on despite the break in the plan. For a while it seemed Tokugawa would lose, and there is some evidence he had prepared for seppuku in such an event. The Ōsaka Rōnin fought bravely but when they needed reinforcements from the castle none came (this may have been due to an agent passing misinformation to Hideyori). Eventually with the enemy being too numerous they were overwhelmed. Too late Toyotomi Hideyori emerged with his army from Ōsakajō, only to be chased back into the mainkeep. With the suddenness of this about-turn, there was not time to prepare a defence of the stronghold and the Eastern Army stormed the main citadel, firing upon the tenshukaku with gun and cannon, and forcing Hideyori to commit suicide. In 1620 Ōsakajō was rebuilt by Tokugawa Hidetada, the 2nd Shōgun, bigger than before with a five-tier eight-storey tenshukaku. He gave the task of building segments of the walls to individual clans and so the castle was built very quickly, a national effort (Tenka Bushin). In 1660 a lightning strike ignited a gunpowder store and caused a fire at the castle. Another lightning bolt in 1665 struck and burned down the tenshukaku and it was subsequently not rebuilt until the modern concrete reconstruction seen today. In 1843 repairs were carried out at the castle and several yagura (turrets) were rebuilt. In 1868 Meiji Forces conquered the castle, causing much destruction. In 1931 Ōsakajō's keep became one of the first castle towers reconstructed in modern times, and the second from concrete, but the castle itself remained as an arsenal and was bombed by Allied aircraft in 1945. The new keep was damaged in the air raid but not destroyed. So you might ask, reading through this history, so then what are you talking about, Adam? Ōsakajō's tenshukaku (donjon) has already been rebuilt! Indeed. But when they came to rebuild the castle in the 1920s, they actually designed the new tower on the original tower built by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, not the tower built by the Tokugawa. And so now we have a facsimile of the Toyotomi tower built on the tenshudai (donjon platform) of the Tokugawa tower! It should also be noted that the current tower is not an exact superficial replica of the original, but seems to merge the look of both historic towers into one! I consider this a third, distinct tower. Although this third tower is historically inaccurate, it has become the symbol of the city of Osaka. The layout of the current Osaka Castle dates to the Edo Period and was built atop of the original castle built by the Toyotomi in the Sengoku Period. Recently the old stones and ramparts of the Sengoku Period castle buried beneath the ground have been excavated and even opened to tours. So any reconstruction efforts at the castle must necessarily conform to the Edo Period Tokugawa-built castle. And there are several structures I would like to see rebuilt. But not the main keep! To rebuild this even approaching something akin to historically accurate, the appearance of Osaka's iconic castle tower would change completely. This may appeal to die-hard purists, but would probably alienate the public at large and cause resentment (since they'd likely be the ones paying for it!). Why is Osaka's castle tower so iconic? Before long this modern third tower, built from concrete, will reach the ripe old age of one hundred! In truth we sometimes do not regard concrete structures as being historically important or worthy of preservation. For example many old apartment complexes built before the war in Tōkyō have been torn down and this has lead to concerned parties seeking their preservation, symbolic of a unique architectural space in the city's history and streetscape. Frankly I have no love for Germanic brutalism in downtown Tokyo, but what I do appreciate is the place of Osaka Castle's modern tenshu in the history of castle reconstruction. A historically inaccurate concrete museum, the tower has now become a historic relic unto itself, and one much adored by locals and tourists alike. For these reasons the actual Edo Period tower should not be reconstructed, and furthermore I believe the current tower should be preserved indefinitely (it should not be rebuilt in wood like Nagoya Castle). Whilst I would love to see an accurate replica built of the Toyotomi keep, it would have to be built somewhere else. The concrete castle tower is a historically important structure worthy of preservation.

[@japansmoderncastles5810]

Thanks for sharing - that's a great overview of the issues! Osaka was the first major reconstruction, and there was very little academic research at that point, so they made a lot of mistakes as you point out (we discuss some of the problems and controversies during the reconstruction in the book). That said, it had a tremendous influence in inspiring other reconstructions around the country both in the 1930s and after 1945, and the keep is an important historical artifact in its own right. As someone once mentioned, Hideyoshi himself would almost certainly have built his own keep out of steel-reinforced concrete if he'd had the choice!

[@trevorkew6097]

Very informative. I remember seeing a huge kendo tournament in the martial arts facility (actually I heard it before I saw it!) which was a first for me. Fascinating place. What a shock to hear about the extent of the space limitations of Osaka around the turn of the century...must've been pretty grim...

[@Takoshinobu]

Great info! Thanks!

[@aukemajk]

Great video! Learned a lot and will use with students. Jealous of your computer skills hehe

[@japansmoderncastles5810]

Thanks! With regard to the media production side of things, onward and upward, haha!

[@professorrshaldjianmorriso1474]

what's up, justin! didn't think i'd run into you here, friend!

[@93xxlolxx]

Do you know of any channels that focus on earlier castles?

[@japansmoderncastles5810]

I'm afraid I don't know of any that do videos, although there are a few sites out there that focus on early castles, such as JCastle: jcastle.info/view/Home

[@osakaosaka4143]

A trivia quiz about Osaka: kzbin.info/www/bejne/lWKldqSlrdCamtk

[@AntonioBustillo-y6m]

👍👍

[@aaronkingmaranon8781]

I'd like to join your class in East Asian History 😍