, also known as or Fushimi-Momoyama Castle, is a

Japanese castle are fortresses constructed primarily of wood and stone. They evolved from the wooden stockades of earlier centuries and came into their best-known form in the 16th century. Castles in Japan were built to guard important or strategic sites, such a ...

located in Fushimi Ward,

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

. Fushimi Castle was constructed from 1592 to 1594 by

Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period, Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods and regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: ...

at the end of the

Sengoku period The was the period in History of Japan, Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as th ...

as his retirement residence. Fushimi Castle was destroyed in the 1596 Keichō–Fushimi earthquake and rebuilt before eventually being demolished in 1623 and its site later used for the tomb of

Emperor Meiji , posthumously honored as , was the 122nd emperor of Japan according to the List of emperors of Japan, traditional order of succession, reigning from 1867 until his death in 1912. His reign is associated with the Meiji Restoration of 1868, which ...

. The current Fushimi Castle is a

replica A replica is an exact (usually 1:1 in scale) copy or remake of an object, made out of the same raw materials, whether a molecule, a work of art, or a commercial product. The term is also used for copies that closely resemble the original, without ...

constructed in 1964 near the original site in Fushimi. The

Azuchi–Momoyama period The was the final phase of the in Japanese history from 1568 to 1600. After the outbreak of the Ōnin War in 1467, the power of the Ashikaga Shogunate effectively collapsed, marking the start of the chaotic Sengoku period. In 1568, Oda Nob ...

of Japanese history partially takes its name from Fushimi Castle.

History

Construction of the original Fushimi Castle begun in 1592, the year after

's retirement from the

regency In a monarchy, a regent () is a person appointed to govern a state because the actual monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge their powers and duties, or the throne is vacant and a new monarch has not yet been dete ...

, and was completed in 1594. Twenty

provinces A province is an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outside Italy. The term ''provi ...

provided workers for the construction, which numbered between 20,000 and 30,000. Fushimi momoyaja jyou 40

Though bearing the external martial appearance of a castle, the structure was intended as a retirement palace for Hideyoshi, and was furnished and decorated as such. It is particularly famous for its Golden Tea Room, in which both the walls and the implements were covered in

gold leaf upA gold nugget of 5 mm (0.2 in) in diameter (bottom) can be expanded through hammering into a gold foil of about 0.5 m2 (5.4 sq ft). The Japan.html" ;"title="Toi gold mine museum, Japan">Toi gold mine museum, Japan. Gold leaf is gold that has ...

. The castle was intended to be the site for Hideyoshi's peace talks with Chinese diplomats seeking an end to the Seven-Year War in

Korea Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...

, but an earthquake destroyed the castle entirely only two years after its completion. Nishihonganji06s4592

It was rebuilt soon afterwards, and came to be controlled by

Torii Mototada was a Japanese samurai and daimyo of the Sengoku-through late-Azuchi–Momoyama periods, who served Tokugawa Ieyasu. Torii died at the siege of Fushimi, where his garrison was greatly outnumbered and destroyed by the army of Ishida Mitsunari. ...

, a vassal of

Tokugawa Ieyasu Tokugawa Ieyasu (born Matsudaira Takechiyo; 31 January 1543 – 1 June 1616) was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which ruled from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was the third of the three "Gr ...

. In 1600, the castle fell in a famous and significant siege by

Ishida Mitsunari was a Japanese samurai and military commander of the late Sengoku period of Japan. He is probably best remembered as the commander of the Western army in the Battle of Sekigahara following the Azuchi–Momoyama period of the 16th century. He ...

. Torii, in a celebrated act of honor and bravery, defended the castle for eleven days, delaying Ishida's forces and allowing his lord Tokugawa time to build his own army. This had a profound effect on the

Battle of Sekigahara The Battle of Sekigahara (Shinjitai: ; Kyūjitai: , Hepburn romanization: ''Sekigahara no Tatakai'') was an important battle in Japan which occurred on October 21, 1600 (Keichō 5, 15th day of the 9th month) in what is now Gifu Prefecture, ...

that came soon afterwards, and which marked the final victory of Tokugawa Ieyasu over all his rivals. Fushimi-Momoyama-Castle-autumn-Luka-Peternel

Fushimi-Momoyama-Castle-autumn-Luka-Peternel

In 1623, the castle was dismantled, and many of its rooms and buildings were incorporated into castles and temples across Japan. Several temples in

, such as Yōgen-in ( 養源院), Genkō-an ( 源光庵), and Hōsen-in ( 宝泉院), have a blood-stained ceiling that had been the floor of a corridor at Fushimi Castle where survivors of Torii's garrison had committed ''

seppuku , also known as , is a form of Japanese ritualistic suicide by disembowelment. It was originally reserved for samurai in their code of honor, but was also practiced by other Japanese people during the Shōwa era (particularly officers near ...

'' after the castle's defenses were breached. In 1912, the tomb of

was built on the original site of the castle. The castle was not rebuilt until 1964, when a replica was created very nearby and primarily in concrete. The new structure served as a museum of the life and campaigns of Hideyoshi, and as the main attraction of a small theme park called "Castle Land", but was closed to the public in 2003. The castle grounds, however, were reopened in 2007.

References

External links

SengokuDaimyo.com
: The website of Samurai Author and Historian Anthony J. Bryant. Accessed 4 April 2011. {{Coord, 34.937534, 135.781194, format=dms, display=title, type:landmark_region:JP_scale:10000 1590s establishments in Japan Fushimi-ku, Kyoto Buildings and structures in Kyoto Castles in Kyoto Prefecture Houses completed in 1594 Tourist attractions in Kyoto Rebuilt buildings and structures in Japan Military history of Kyoto

History

See also

References

Further reading

External links