History

Almost all of these medieval castles were originally military fortifications, and were, “designed to provide protection against enemy attack” (Japan: An Illustrated Encyclopedia 165-168). Many of the castles from this time period were semi-permanent and not meant to last forever, serving as only temporary bases and residences for Daimyo and being placed strategically on mountain ridges often for defense. These same castles were used as a location for military and political presence as well as becoming symbolic architecture of the era of feudalism. In addition, most of the medieval castles were built from the periods of the Northern and Southern Courts (1336 to 1392) to Sengoku (1477 - 1573) because of constant fighting in their civilization. One major characteristic of medieval Japanese castles is that they had 2-3 waves of advance fortifications for potential invaders. Because these structures were semi-permanent, stone walls were rarely constructed as defense, but rather many trenches and smaller watchtowers that were also temporary buildings.

Japanese castles have changed an incredible amount over time from Medieval times to the near-current era. They started off as military fortifications for Japan’s Daimyo, as stated above, but were changed drastically due to feudalism and other factors like the levels of fighting in the civilization. Because of the Tokugawa shogunate’s reorganization of the feudal system, Daimyo began building or moving their castles to the center of their domains and the areas that they presided over. This was mostly due to the newly passed legislation that stated that the regional lords were only allotted one main castle. Also, this one castle policy along with the alternate attendance policy reduced the use of and worsened the skill in Japanese castle building since they were so severely weakened. 

Another reason for a change in the art of Japan’s castle building was that Oda Nobunaga had built Azuchi castle, an enormous castle that changed the architectural ways of the Japanese when it was constructed from 1576-1579. Despite being later destroyed in 1582 after his death, it had already begun a chain reaction of Daimyo building newer castles that were intended to be permanent, many of which survived until or past World War II and into current years. Lots of these new kinds of castles were built in or around plains, and heavily defended by stone walls and deep moats because they were now fully permanent structures. Plus, the new model of castle was now a compound that included many other different buildings for living, storage, and more. Some examples of this type of Japanese castle are the Osaka Castle, Himeji Castle, and Nijo Castle, which will be explored in further depth elsewhere in the website.