Tokugawa Castle

Another castle has risen in a Disney Park. It is not a fairy-tale castle, a fantasy-inspired castle inhabited by Disney Princesses or storybook Princes. It is tall, powerful, consisting of story-upon-story and layer-upon-layer of elaborately carved, gilded and painted wood and tiles. Its massive stone foundation, dozens of feet in height and yards thick, rises from a broad defensive moat of crystal-clear water. The sight of it, soaring above this foundation and visible from every corner of the village that has grown up around its defenses, radiates both strength, majesty and elegance.

The design of Tokugawa Castle was inspired by Edo Castle (sometimes called Chiyoda Castle), which once stood in the grounds of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. The original castle burned in 1873, leaving only its massive stone foundation and a few smaller towers, but the memory of its magnificence and strength remains today. Tokugawa Castle, named for the Shogun Tokugawa who built the original Edo Castle in 1457, now proudly takes its place in the pantheon of Disney Castles, in recognition of the thousands of years of Japanese culture and civilization.

Tokugawa Castle consists of three main sections, the Tenshu, the Nipponbunka Kaikan (Japanese Cultural Center) and the Michiba Chiyoda Restaurant.

Gateways into the Castle foundations can be accessed from all four sides via bridges crossing the moat, which completely surrounds the Castle. Due to the popularity of the exhibits in the Tenshu, FastPass is available and recommended, and advanced reservations are available and strongly recommended for the extremely popular Michiba Chiyoda Restaurant. Many of the shops in the Nipponbunka Kaikan offer hands-on classes to a limited number of participants for an extra fee and require advanced reservations, with a limited number of same-day slots available on a first-come, first-serve basis. The retail portions of these craft shops are open to the general public.

THE TENSHU

The Tenshu in a Japanese castle corresponds to the Keep in a western castle. It is the tallest tower in the castle complex (which often had multiple towers surmounting its extensive defensive foundation walls). The Tokugawa Tenshu rises seven stories above the massive stone foundation of the castle, each story identified by a graceful hipped and tiled roof. Inside, each floor consists of exhibit galleries and balconies surrounding an open space rising nearly forty-five meters from the ground floor to its elegantly-carved and gilded ceiling.

The Tenshu houses the “Halls of Japanese Art and Culture,” a series of galleries showcasing some of the finest Japanese arts and crafts to be found anywhere. The Oriental Land Company has invested nearly $6.5 million and has created a world-renowned collection of both historic and contemporary Japanese art, featuring fine porcelain, jade carvings, magnificent painted screens and traditional furnishings, among many other artistic and historic objects d’art.

There is no admission charge to these exhibits, but special FastPass is available. All floors and exhibits in the Halls of Japanese Art and Culture are handicapped-accessible via elevator and ramp.

NIPPONBUNKA KAIKAN

Traditional Japanese arts and crafts are among the most famous and popular in the world. Many have been passed down from generation-to-generation for hundreds if not thousands of years, and specimens of Japanese arts and crafts are found in nearly every museum. The Tokyo Disney Resort and Tokugawa Village have brought many of the finest Japanese artists and craftspeople to the Japanese Cultural Center, located in both the massive foundation of the Tokugawa Castle and in the gardens and plaza located within the Castle’s five acres of protective walls.

Over a dozen traditional Japanese crafts are featured in individual shops in the Center. Each has hand-crafted products available for purchase, and most offer the opportunity for visitors to have “hands-on” experiences, working with experienced craftspeople and learning more about their culture and heritage. These classes do require a separate fee and most require advanced registration due to limited space availability (with some having walk-in spaces available on a first-come, first-serve basis.)

The following crafts are offered, with additional crafts featured seasonally:

• Shodo- Calligraphy using a brush. A highly-stylized artistic blend of painting and writing.
• Origami- Paper-folding using hand-crafted paper to create dozens of artistic decorations, such as boxes, fans, ornaments and the ever-popular cranes.
• Bonseki- Miniature landscapes are created on black lacquer trays using white sand, pebbles and small rocks. This is an intentionally impermanent art, inspired by the Japanese aesthetic of mono no aware.
• Kirigami- Similar to origami, but cutting the paper is allowed. These creations are made from a single sheet of paper with no glue of any kind.
• Sensu- Elegantly-painted folding fans with traditional Japanese scenes depicted on their paper or silk surfaces.
• Washi Eggs- Emptied eggs decorated with patterned paper.
• Maki-e- Lacquerware decorated with powdered metals (gold and silver)
• Amigurumi- Knit or crocheted small stuffed animals.
• Chochin- Collapsible bamboo lanterns covered with silk or paper.
• Temari- Literally “hand ball”, made from old silk kimonos as a toy, with the outside covered in elaborate embroidery.
• Netsuke- Decorative, highly-carved containers hung from the obi of kimonos to carry objects.
• Ikebana- Traditional flower arranging, using both fresh and silk flowers
• Seasonal demonstrations of blacksmithing, silk production from silk worms and even mending fishing nets are presented in the gardens of the Castle.

MICHIBA CHIYODA RESTAURANT

Japanese castles often had other, smaller towers along with the main Tenshu tower. Called Yagura, these towers served multiple purposes. Some were watch towers, other water towers, and in some of the larger, more important castles, they even served as observatories and places for the important occupants of the castle to observe the moon. Tokugawa Castle has two of these yagura towers, one used for yagura-daiko, (taiko drumming from atop the tower, similar to a western bell carillon) and one inspired by several domestic residence towers found in original Japanese castles around the nation. This second tower, perched atop one end of a massive stone foundation wall of the Castle, is the location of one of the finest restaurants in the Tokyo Disneyland Resort, the Michiba Chiyoda Restaurant.

Chef Michiba Rokusaburo was the first Japanese Iron Chef, and was world-famous for his pioneering Neo-Japanese Cuisine, which is a fusion of traditional Japanese cooking techniques and ingredients with non-Japanese ingredients. He referred to it as “borderless Japanese cuisine,” and opened three renowned restaurants in three Japanese cities. He has now increased this number to four with Michiba Chiyoda.

The interior design of Michiba Chiyoda recreates the restrained elegance of a sixteenth-century Japanese daimyo’s residence inside his own castle, while providing for modern comforts and dining preferences. All table settings are hand-crafted using traditional techniques of ornamentation and all furnishings are inspired by period engravings. Each menu is printed in Shodo-style, based on Chef Michiba’s exquisite personal calligraphy, which he made famous by always writing his Iron Chef menus out himself before beginning his cooking.

The menu changes daily, but an example of a typical meal at Michiba Chiyoda would consist of:

1. First Course- a selection of appetizers: Seared cheese aged in miso and sake lees, boiled mizuna with herring roe, prawn and yam paste set in saffron jelly, blanched wild onion served with spicy miso vinegar, and cherry tomatoes marinated in red wine.
2. Second Course- crab fishcake, served in bonito consommé, garnished with mitsuba herb and yuzu peel
3. Third Course- Tempura monkfish, lotus root and sweet green pepper with Michiba’s special sauce; Hamachi sashimi and sea bream; kaburamushi with gingko nuts and kikurage mushroom steamed with grated turnip and flavored with wasabi.
4. Fourth Course- Sweet purple yam pudding covered in cream, served with hojicha tea

Prices for lunch average 4,000Yen/person, with dinner prices averaging 7,000Yen/person.