List of National Treasures of Japan (castles)
The Japanese Sengoku period from the mid-15th to early 17th century was a time of nearly continual military conflict. Powerful military lords known as daimyōs, such as Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi or Tokugawa Ieyasu, struggled to unify Japan. During the Sengoku period, because of constant warfare, many fortifications and castles were built. Archetypal Japanese castle construction is a product of the Momoyama period and early Edo period.
A new era of castle construction began when the daimyo Nobunaga built Azuchi Castle from 1576 to 1579. Earlier fortifications of the Kamakura and Muromachi periods were crude large-scale structures; Azuchi, however, with rich ornamentation and a keep rising seven stories high, became the prototype for castle construction of the period. The style of Azuchi Castle marked a shift in the function of the castles from a place that was merely a fortress and military garrison to a political, cultural and economic center. The newer style castles functioned as home to the daimyōs, his family, and his most loyal retainers. Because of the expense of building such a lavish structure, castles in the style of Azuchi, functioned also to highlight the power and prestige of the daimyōs. These new castles were built of wood and plaster on a stone foundation. Generally the main keep or tenshu was positioned at the highest point, surrounded by a series of interlocking baileys with walls, small towers and pathways. Residential buildings were located in one of the outer circles. The daimyō conducted his business in the citadel.
Almost 100 major castles were built between 1596 and 1615. The peak of castle-building occurred during the years 1600 to 1615: in 1600 Tokugawa Ieyasu defeated the Toyotomi clan in the Battle of Sekigahara; and in 1615 the Toyotomi forces were finally destroyed in the Siege of Osaka. The Tokugawa shogunate then limited the number of castles to one per province; and banned the building of new castles entirely in 1620. By the time of the Meiji Restoration in the late 19th century, castles were in a state of disuse and neglect. Seen as symbolic of the ruling elite of previous eras, some castles were dismantled and sold as firewood. Others were destroyed by fire, earthquake or typhoon. Only twelve castles have a donjon that is considered original.
The term "National Treasure" has been used in Japan to denote cultural properties since 1897.
The definition and the criteria have changed since the inception of the term. These castle structures adhere to the current definition, and were designated national treasures when the Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties was implemented on June 9, 1951. The items are selected by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology based on their "especially high historical or artistic value". This list presents nine entries of National Treasures from five castles built during the late Momoyama to early Edo period; however, the number of structures is actually more because in some cases multiple structures have been combined to form a single entry. The structures listed include donjon, watch towers and connecting galleries.
Features
The nine nationaltreasures are distributed over five castles as follows: Himeji Castle has five national treasure structures; Hikone Castle, Inuyama Castle, Matsue Castle and Matsumoto Castle each have one. Three main types of
castles exist. Generally the types are characterised according to the
topography of the castle's site and named accordingly:
mountain castles; flatland
castles, as exemplified by Matsumoto Castle; and
flatland mountain castles, which are
castles built on hills in a plain such as Himeji Castle, Hikone Castle, Inuyama Castle, and Matsue Castle.
The
donjon can be constructed in two ways. In the older
style, the top of the main keep is formed by a type of lookout tower placed on top of one or more hip-and-gable
style roofs. Hikone Castle, Himeji Castle,
Inuyama Castle and Matsue Castle are representative of this style. The
style represented by the keep of
Matsumoto Castle has a virtually square foundation. Each level is slightly smaller than the one below but maintains the same shape.
Only in rare cases the
donjon stands independent of other structures. Generally it is
connected to smaller watch towers called yagura, either directly or via a connecting
gallery in which case the style is called
. Matsumoto Castle has both styles, renketsushiki in the northwest
and fukugōshiki in the southeast. At Himeji Castle three watch
towers, four connecting galleries and the main donjon enclose a
small courtyard.
A typical keep would have between three and seven stories discernible from the outside. Its inner structure including the number of floors could differ from the outward appearance. Castle towers at Himeji, Inuyama, Matsue and Matsumoto Castle have one floor more than is visible from the outside.
Usage
The table's columns are sortable pressing the arrows symbols. The following gives an overview of what is included in the table and how the sorting works.- Name: name of the structure as registered in the Database of National Cultural Properties
- Castle: name of the castle in which the structure is located
- Construction: architecture and general remarks including the number of stories and floors ; the column entries sort by the type of structure
- Date: period and year of the construction; the column entries sort by year. If only a period is known, they sort by the start year of that period.
- Location: "town-name prefecture-name" and geo-coordinates of the structure; The column entries sort as "prefecture-name town-name".
- Image: picture of the structure; If the image shows more than one structure, the respective structure is indicated by a blue rectangle.
Treasures
| Name | Castle | Construction | Date | Location | Image |
| Tenshu | Hikone Castle | Hikone, Shiga | |||
| Connecting tower and Tamon Tower | Hikone Castle | Hikone, Shiga | |||
| Big Tenshu | Himeji Castle | Himeji, Hyōgo | |||
| Northwest Small Tower | Himeji Castle | connected to the ro-corridor in the east and the ha-corridor in the south | Himeji, Hyōgo | ||
| West Small Tower | Himeji Castle | connected to the ni-corridor in the east and the ha-corridor in the north | Himeji, Hyōgo | ||
| East Small Tower | Himeji Castle | connected to the ro-corridor in the west and the i-corridor in the south | Himeji, Hyōgo | ||
| I, Ro, Ha, Ni-corridors | Himeji Castle | I-corridor: between Big Tenshu and East Small Tower, high on a high stone wall Ro-corridor: between East Small Tower and Northwest Small Tower, high on a high stone wall Ha-corridor: between Northwest Small Tower and West Small Tower, high on a high stone wall Ni-corridor: between West Small Tower and Big Tenshu, high covering an area of | Himeji, Hyōgo | ||
| Tenshu | Inuyama Castle | Inuyama, Aichi | |||
| Tenshu | Matsue Castle | Matsue, Shimane | |||
| Connecting tower | Matsue Castle | Matsue, Shimane | |||
| Tenshu | Matsumoto Castle | Matsumoto, Nagano | |||
| Northwest Small Tower | Matsumoto Castle | Matsumoto, Nagano | |||
| Connecting Tower | Matsumoto Castle | Matsumoto, Nagano | |||
| Southeast Connecting Tower | Matsumoto Castle | Matsumoto, Nagano | |||
| Moon-viewing Tower | Matsumoto Castle | Matsumoto, Nagano |