Castles-mirror of social evolution

Title

Language

English

Year

1961

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In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

Castles-Mlrror of Castles represent the wis dom and craftsmanship of their times. They reflect the social evolutions of their era. Their construction was mas ter-minded by a selected few who knew what to build in style and who could whip their ideas into enduring and impressive architecture. Castles had their own styles born of their age. At the same time, however, they had com mon features — gigantic in size, overpowering in looks, sturdy in construction and strategic in location. Designed as springboards for expansion, the castles were the primary instruments of feudal reign to impress and keep in submis sion all those who worked for the lords and all those who simply obeyed them. It is not clear when the cas tle was introduced into Japan. But it is gathered from histo rical data that the first castles were built after the Taika Evolution of 645 when a sem blance of a state was organiz ed in the country. Earlier ci tadels were hemmed in by makeshift defenses against ar rows and intruders such as straw bundles, moats and ri vers. Subsequently, they were replaced by wooden fences and stone piles, backed by mountainous terrain. In the middle of the Heian Era (792-1192), the fragile sys tem of centralized govern ment went to pieces and po werful provincial clans fought with each other in scrambles for power and territory. As the situation worsened, the wooden fences and stone piles, protecting their living quar ters, ceased to be sufficient to serve the purpose for which they had been intended. Con sequently, footholds were fix ed on top of the wooden fen ces and towers built above the residences to watch intruders and shoot arrows. With the advance of know ledge, however, improved structures were built at van tage points such as atop moun tains, with rapid streams in front and steep cliffs in the back. This was called the “mountain type of castle”. In this era, fighting methods underwent a radical change. Cavalry was replaced by more mobile infantry as battlefields 60 Panorama Social Evolution shifted to mountains from the plains. Replaced also were the farmer-warriors by the pro fessionals who came to live in and near the castles. The parttime warriors went back to their rightful occupation of farming. As a result, there sprang up at the foot of moun tains communities of traders and craftsmen whose mer chandise and services the lords and their warriors need ed in their daily lives as well as in the pursuit of their pro fession. But as such towns developed in the wide expanse of plains, warlords and warriors found it far more convenient to live in or near them than on moun tain tops, where coolies had to be hired to carry up every thing necessary, ranging from war-making materials to food and clothing. Thus did the plains type of castle come into being. The construction of such castles became wide spread especially after the Portuguese introduced the matchlock gun into Japan in 1543. For the “flying (shoot ing) tool”, as it was called then, was of little use on tim ber-covered mountain sides or in narrow bushy gorges. But inasmuch as castles of this type had nothing to rely on in-nature to cover them selves, they had to be so constructed as to keep off and baffle enemies. Around the castles, therefore, were dug a number of wide and deep moats completely secret to outsiders. Castle architecture reached its height in the latter part of the 16th century, popularly called the Momoyama Era. During this period Hideyoshi Toyotomi carried out overseas expeditions. With the turn of the 17th century, peace gra dually returned to the battletorn country under Iyeyasu Tokugawa whose family reign lasted until 1868. Castles, which had been simply mili tary institutions in nature, be came the seats of political, economic and military admi nistration. Accordingly, castles grew in size and scope, bringing un der their shelter towns of the common people their master ruled. The castles were lo cated in the central parts of December 1961 61 large and fertile plains for the sake of easy transportation. To impress the people at large, the warlords built mag nificent-looking watch-towers, either three or five storied, atop their castles. As were expected, the watch-towers were looked up to as symbols of culture in the regions. An outstanding example was the Nagoya Castle with an impressive five-storied tower which looks down upon thriving Nagoya City today. Now a national treasure and tourist attraction, the Nagoya Castle was built in 1601-12 in the midst of the Nobi Plains, surrounded by a river, mar shes and a sea. It served to develop the central region of Japan as nucleus of its cul ture and civilization. The Osaka Castle, complet ed a little earlier in 1585 with labor brought in from all parts of the country, was the seat of government by adventu rous Hideyoshi Toyotomi whose national reign was ta ken over by the Tokugawas. The castle, a national treasure in good shape today, is the landmark of Japan’s Manches ter, Osaka. The Edo Castle, completed in 1636, was an architectural beauty and grandeur until part of it was reduced to ash es by air-raids during the last war. Situated in the heart of Tokyo Metropolis, the remain ing portion of the castle is occupied by Their Majesties, The Emperor and the Em press. The moats that sur round the castle or Palace es tate remain the way they were centuries ago. Both the Edo and the Osaka Castles have , watch-towers, but the Nagoya Castle’s is the most dazzling and gorgeous. It was the. watch-tower at its best as a piece of architecture and as a fortress. The towers, built in the Edo Era under the Tokugawa Shogunate, were standardized and rather ornamental; practically all of them were three-storied. For they had no military mission to perform, so to speak, since peace prevailed all through this era. Today there still remain in tact scores of castles, through out the country, out of a lit tle more than 300 that existed at the end of Shogunate rule in 1868 when the Emperor be gan to reign again. Of the existing castles today, 28 have their watch-towers looking down upon the surrounding areas. Wherever they are in Japan, they are tourist attrac tions of the first magnitude. Ramparts that walled the castles off from the outside world also developed with the lapse of time. In the period of 1570-1600, ramparts were 62 Panorama He (to lady in ultra gown)—Do you like wearing evening dress? She—I feel that nothing is more becoming to me. He—I have no doubt of that; but wouldn't that be going a trifle too far? ♦ ♦ ♦ The Psychic's Wife: It didn't use to be so bad with his Shakespeares and Napoleons, but the way he's carryin' on nowadays with that Cleopat ra woman is more than I can stand. ♦ ♦ * made up of piles of natural rocks, but from the beginning of the 17th century, rocks were pounded and made to fit one another before they were piled up. In the latter part of the century, squared stones were used to build up ramparts, all of considerable height, as seen around the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. The Osaka Castle is noted especially for the rampart made up of astonishingly large stones, some of which were said to have been brought all the way from Kvushu Island, although they were four by four meters or larger in size. A question rises here as to how rocks of such size were brought and piled up. The answer is rather simple. Some wise man, seeing that igno rant workers were trying to load such big stones on a boat, taught them to “load the boat on the stones rather than load the stones on the boat”. Whe ther he knew the Archime dean principle, he actually applied it in this case. Some of the stones tied to the bottom of boats sank deep in the seas before they reach ed their destination in Osaka. But the beauty of the Osaka Castle remains perfectly in tact today thanks to thousands and thousands of laborers who hauled and piled up rocks, large and small, by the sheer force of their stamina. A similar story can be told of all the castles of various sizes that still exist through out Japan today. They can didly reflect the evolutions that took place in feudal Ja pan, long past. December 196) 63

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