Azuchi Castle

File:Aduchi castle12.jpg

This all-stone-walled castle was built on a vast site on the banks of Lake Biwa as a new stronghold for Oda Nobunaga.{{cite web|url = https://www.nippon.com/ja/japan-topics/b06905/|title = 天下統一を夢見た織田信長|last = Kawai|first = Atsushi|author-link =|date = 3 January 2020|orig-date = |editor-last = |editor-first = |website = |publisher = Public Interest Incorporated Foundation, Nippon.com| language = ja| trans-title = Oda Nobunaga, who dreamed of unifying the country| access-date = 9 August 2023}}

Niwa Nagahide had responsibility for constructing the castle, which began in 1576 and completed in 1579.{{cite book|last1=Turnbull|first1=Stephen|title=The Samurai Sourcebook|date=1998|publisher=Cassell & Co|location=London|isbn=9781854095237|pages=67–68}}{{rp|289,301}}

Unlike earlier castles and fortresses, Azuchi was not intended to be a military structure alone, cold, dark, and foreboding. Nobunaga intended it as a mansion which would impress and intimidate his rivals not only with its defenses, but also with its lavish apartments and decorations, flourishing town, and religious life.

The keep, called tenshu (or tenshukaku), was a seven-storey building with six floors above ground and one below, built as a symbol of the castle rather than as the centre of its defence, and this was the beginning of the full-fledged tenshu in Japanese castles.

The building containing audience halls, private chambers, offices, and a treasury, as though it were a royal palace. All seven stories were decorated by Kanō Eitoku.{{rp|380–381}}

In addition to being one of the first Japanese castles with a tower keep, the Azuchi keep itself was unique in that its uppermost story was octagonal. In addition, the facade of the Azuchi donjon, unlike the solid white or black of other keeps, was colorfully decorated with tigers and dragons.

There were five main militaristic features of Azuchi Castle that differentiated it from earlier castle designs. Firstly, it was a massive structure, with the walls of the castle ranging from 5.5 to 6.5 meters in thickness. The second feature of Azuchi Castle is the predominant use of stone. The walls were constructed from huge granite stones fitted carefully together without the use of mortar. A third innovation of the Azuchi Castle was the high central tower, or donjon. The tower allowed for increased visibility for the use of guns against an opposing force. Builder’s plans for the castle show the donjon to be 40 meters, with seven levels. Fourthly, Azuchi Castle had irregularly formed inner citadels. These inner citadels gave defenders ample defensive positions against intruders.

Nobunaga chose Azuchi-yama for the location of Azuchi Castle, which rises 100 meters above Lake Biwa. The site was strategically placed at the intersection of three highways converging on Kyoto from the east.{{rp|118}}

Nobunaga desired a full castle town, and built well-defended homes for his generals, a Jōdo-shū Buddhist temple called Jōgon-in, and a number of homes for commoners a short distance away on the shore of the lake. He had trouble convincing people to move into these homes at first, however. In the summer of 1577, he issued a municipal charter, guaranteeing residents immunity from taxes, building or transport levies, and moratoria, and forced all travelers on the Nakasendō highway to stop in the town overnight for lodging, thus bringing business to his town's innkeepers. By 1582, the town's inhabitants numbered roughly 5,000.{{rp|295,302}}

In addition to welcoming many of Nobunaga's powerful political guests, such as Tokugawa Ieyasu and Niwa Nagahide, Azuchi castle also hosted an event in 1579 which has come to be known as the Azuchi religious debate (安土宗論, Azuchi shūron), taking place between leaders of the Nichiren and Jōdo-shū sects of Buddhism.

On the night of Urabon-e (Feast of Lanterns) in 1581, Nobunaga made the houses in the castle town turn off their lights and lit up Azuchi Castle with lanterns and other decorations to astonish the missionaries leaving the castle. It was even more impressive because the castle was built on the tip of a promontory surrounded on three sides by a lake, and the surrounding area had not yet been reclaimed.{{cite news |date= 3 August 2022|title=夏祭りから見えてくる…新暦が分断した「お盆」の歴史|trans-title= Summer Festivals Reveal... The History of Obon, Divided by the New Calendar |url= https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/column/japanesehistory/20220801-OYT8T50073/ |language=Ja |work=Yomiuri Shimbun|location=Tokyo |access-date= 9 August 2023}}

On New Year's Day (lunar calendar) in 1582, Nobunaga opened the interior of Azuchi Castle to guests of honour. So many people crowded in that part of the stone wall collapsed, resulting in injuries and even deaths. At that time, Nobunaga had instructed the daimyos and their vassals to bring 100 mon (monetary unit) each. After the tour, Nobunaga was waiting for them at the end and received the money in person.{{cite web| url = https://goetheweb.jp/lifestyle/more/20200917-nobunaga20| title = 信長見聞録 天下人の実像 - 第二十章 安土城| last = Ishikawa| first = Takuji | author-link =| date = 17 September 2020| orig-date = | editor-last = | editor-first = | website = GOETHE| publisher = Gentosha| language = ja| trans-title = Nobunaga Observations: The Realities of the Ruler of Japan - Chapter 20: Azuchi Castle| access-date = 7 August 2023}}

In the summer of 1582, just after Nobunaga's death at Honnō-ji, the castle was taken over by the forces of Akechi Mitsuhide, Nobunaga's betrayer. The castle was set aflame a week or so later, with some accounts claiming this might have been the work of looting townspeople, or of one of Nobunaga's sons.{{cite book|last1=Sansom|first1=George|title=A History of Japan, 1334-1615|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofjapan00sans|url-access=registration|date=1961|publisher=Stanford University Press|location=Stanford|isbn=0804705259|page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofjapan00sans/page/308 308]}}

File:Azuchi.jpg

File:Azuchi Castle Ruins.jpg

Confucius and other Confucian figures were depicted in paintings at Azuchi Castle.{{cite book | chapter-url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/japanese-confucian/ | title=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy | chapter=Japanese Confucian Philosophy | date=2022 | publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University }} The highest respect given to Confucianism in Azuchi Castle implies that Nobunaga's ideas were shifting from tactics for the battlefield to the responsibility of ruling the realm and ensuring peace and order all around.{{cite book | chapter-url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/japanese-confucian/ | title=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy | chapter=Japanese Confucian Philosophy | date=2022 | publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University }}

In 1976, the Japanese architectural historian Akira Naitō published what he believed to be a conclusive summary of the features of Azuchi Castle. He concluded that the tenshu was 46 meters in height, with a gilded octagonal belvedere on top. An atrium rose from the basement level to the fourth floor ceiling, supposedly influenced by the Jesuits, but with a stupa at the atrium floor center. However, the external design of Azuchi Castle is still debated. Another Japanese Architectural Historian, Miyakami Shigetaka, has accused Naitō of failing to corroborate his theory with enough documentation.{{rp|184–186}}

The Azuchi Screens are a set of six-folding screens depicting Azuchi Castle and its nearby town. Oda Nobunaga gifted them to Pope Gregory XIII, who displayed them in the Vatican collections, where they were admired by visitors. However, they disappeared from historical record. Their fate is unknown and they are considered to be lost. The screens must have been pivotal works in the development of Japanese folding screens.{{cite book |last1=McKelway |first1=Matthew |date=2006 |title=Capitalscapes Folding Screens and Political Imagination in Late Medieval Kyoto |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |pages=296 |chapter=The Azuchi Screens and Images of Castles |isbn= 978-0824861773 |name-list-style=amp}}

File:110305 Imitation of Aduchi cstl.jpg

All that remains of the castle today is the stonework. However, an approximate reproduction of the Azuchi Castle donjon, based on illustrations and historical descriptions, stands in Ise Sengoku Village, a samurai theme park near Ise. In addition, a full-scale replica of the top floors of the donjon is on display at the Nobunaga no Yakata Museum near the original castle ruins.

Azuchi Castle was listed as one of Japan's Top 100 Castles by the Japan Castle Foundation in 2006.[https://web.archive.org/web/20141117152607/http://www1a.biglobe.ne.jp/nihonjokaku/ Japan Castle Foundation]

The construction of the castle was the theme of the 2009 period drama film Castle Under Fiery Skies (火天の城, Katen no Shiro), based on Kenichi Yamamoto's novel of the same name and directed by Tanaka Mitsutoshi.{{cite web | url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1467269/ | title=Katen no shiro | website=IMDb }}

• List of Special Places of Scenic Beauty, Special Historic Sites and Special Natural Monuments
• Golden Tea Room

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book| title=Castles in Japan| last=Schmorleitz| first=Morton S.| year=1974| pages=[https://archive.org/details/castlesinjapan00schm/page/65 65–68]| publisher=Charles E. Tuttle Co.| location=Tokyo| isbn=0-8048-1102-4| url-access=registration| url=https://archive.org/details/castlesinjapan00schm/page/65}}
• {{cite book |title=Warlords, Artist, & Commoners |last1=Elison |first1=George |last2=Bardwell |first2=L |year=1987 |publisher=University Press of Hawaii |location=Honolulu }}
• {{cite book |title=Japanese Castles 1540-1640 |last=Turnbull |first=Stephen |year=2003 |publisher=Osprey Publishing |location=Oxford }}
• {{cite thesis |last=Erdmann | first=Mark Karl |year=2016 |title=Azuchi Castle: Architectural Innovation and Political Legitimacy in Sixteenth-Century Japan |publisher=Harvard University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences |location=Cambridge, MA |pages=294 |url=http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:33493525 }}
• {{cite book |title=Japan's Castles: Citadels of Modernity in War and Peace | last=Benesch |first=Oleg and Ran Zwigenberg |year=2019 |pages=374 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=9781108481946}}
• {{cite book |title=An Encyclopedia of Japanese Castles | last=De Lange |first=William |year=2021 |pages=600 |publisher=Toyo Press |location=Groningen |isbn=978-9492722300}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Vizeu Pinheiro |first1=Francisco|date=2022 |title=Macao and East Asia Military Architecture: Context, Networks and Influences |journal=Revista de Cultura |volume=69 |pages=8–39 |url=http://www.icm.gov.mo/rc/viewer/pdfViewerParts/40069/4125 |language=en }}

{{Commons category|Azuchi Castle}}

• [http://www.zc.ztv.ne.jp/bungei/nobu/ Nobunaga no Yakata Museum]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070312032343/http://www.iloveshiro.com/shiro/azuchi/index.htm Azuchi Castle (moving image)]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070227161307/http://www.iloveshiro.com/index.htm NOBUNAKAOU reporter]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080228084222/http://www45.tok2.com/home/todo94/azuchi.html Photos and models of Azuchi castle]

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