, 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 ...

located in

Fushimi Ward is one of the eleven wards in the city of Kyoto, in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. Famous places in Fushimi include the Fushimi Inari Shrine, with thousands of torii lining the paths up and down a mountain; Fushimi Castle, originally built by Toyot ...

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin, Keihanshin metropolitan area along wi ...

. 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 regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations that Changed the Cour ...

at the end of the

Sengoku period The was a period in History of Japan, Japanese history of near-constant civil war and social upheaval from 1467 to 1615. The Sengoku period was initiated by the Ōnin War in 1467 which collapsed the Feudalism, feudal system of Japan under the ...

as his retirement residence. Fushimi Castle was destroyed in 1596 and rebuilt before eventually being demolished in 1623 and its site later used for the tomb of Emperor Meiji. The current Fushimi Castle is a replica constructed in 1964 near the original site in Fushimi. The Azuchi-Momoyama period of

Japanese history The first human inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago have been traced to prehistoric times around 30,000 BC. The Jōmon period, named after its cord-marked pottery, was followed by the Yayoi period in the first millennium BC when new inventi ...

partially takes its name from Fushimi Castle.

History

The construction of the original Fushimi Castle was begun in 1592, the year after

's retirement from the

regency A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...

, and completed in 1594. Twenty

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

provided workers for the construction, which numbered between 20,000 and 30,000. 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 The was a portable gilded '' chashitsu'' (tea room) constructed during the late 16th century Azuchi–Momoyama period for the Japanese regent Lord Toyotomi Hideyoshi's tea ceremonies. The original Golden Tea Room is lost, but a number of recon ...

in which both the walls and the implements were covered in gold leaf. 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 ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

, 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 period through late Azuchi–Momoyama period, who served Tokugawa Ieyasu. Torii died at the siege of Fushimi where his garrison was greatly outnumbered and destroyed by the army of Ishida Mitsu ...

, a vassal of

Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fello ...

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

siege A siege is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or a well-prepared assault. This derives from la, sedere, lit=to sit. Siege warfare is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict characteriz ...

by Ishida Mitsunari. Torii Mototada, 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, which 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 Kyoto, such as Yōgen-in ( 養源院), Genkō-an ( 源光庵), and

Hōsen-in is a Buddhist temple of the Tendai-shū, located in Sakyō-ku of Kyoto-shi, in the prefecture of Kyoto, Japan. It is specified as a natural monument by the Kyoto government. History It was built in 1012 under the reign of Emperor Sanjō in ...

( 宝泉院), have a blood-stained ceiling that had been the floor of a corridor at Fushimi Castle where Torii Mototada and company had committed suicide. In 1912, the tomb of Emperor Meiji 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 Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and 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 Buildings and structures in Kyoto Castles in Kyoto Prefecture Houses completed in 1594 Tourist attractions in Kyoto Rebuilt buildings and structures in Japan

History

See also

References

Further reading

External links