The were centres of the domains of the feudal lords in medieval Japan. The ''jōkamachi'' represented the new, concentrated military power of the

daimyo were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and nominally to ...

in which the formerly decentralized defence resources were concentrated around a single, central citadel. These cities did not necessarily form around castles after the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

; some are known as ''jin'yamachi'', cities that have evolved around '' jin'ya'' or government offices that are not intended to provide military services. Defined broadly, ''jokamachi'' includes ''jin'yamachi''. It is also referred to as ''jōka'', as was common before the early modern period. Tatsuno Hyogo pref01s4bs4272

History

The origins of ''jōkamachi'' dates back to the

Kamakura period The is a period of History of Japan, Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the G ...

, but it was not until the 1570s in 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 ...

that the ''jōkamachi'' predominated other types of town. The ''jōkamachi'' can be divided into the ''shugo jōkamachi'', in which a castle town is ruled by the resident

. While the ''shugo jōkamachi'' were the political centres of the domain, economic activities were greater in the towns that developed around shrines and temples (''monzen machi'') and port towns (''minato machi''). In the midl-16th century, the castle towns proliferated and became both the residence of the daimyo and the political centre of the domain (''sengoku jōkamachi''). ''Jōkamachi'' functions both as a military base represented by the castle and an administrative and commercial city.

Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese ''daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period, Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods. He was the and regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. He is sometimes referred as the "Demon Daimyō" and "Demo ...

was the biggest contributor to the development of early-modern ''jōkamachi''. Oda aimed at promoting the ''heinobunri'' (distinguishing the

samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

class from the rest by giving privileged status to samurai and disarming farmers and the rest) by forcing the samurai class to live in ''jōkamachi'', while establishing ''rakuichi-rakuza'' (free markets and open guilds) to stimulate merchandising and trade. ''Jōkamachi'' flourished even more under

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: ...

's regime, whose political and commercial epicenter

Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...

-jōka became very prosperous as the center of commodities. Osaka continued to be the business center in the Edo period and was called the "kitchen of the land". Most of the world's walled cities comprise a castle and a city inside the defensive walls. While Japan did have towns and villages surrounded by

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch dug around a castle, fortification, building, or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. Moats can be dry or filled with water. In some places, moats evolved into more extensive water d ...

s and earth mounds, such as

Sakai is a city located in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. It has been one of the largest and most important seaports of Japan since the medieval era. Sakai is known for its '' kofun'', keyhole-shaped burial mounds dating from the fifth century. The ''kofun ...

, ''jōkamachi'' initially had moats and walls only around the feudal lord's castle and did not build walls around the entire city. However, as ''jōkamachi'' developed and increased its economic and political value, it demanded protection from wars and turmoil. More and more cities were built with moats and defensive walls, the style of which is known as ''so-gamae'' (full defence perimeter), and gradually came to resemble walled cities. In the Edo period, ''jōkamachi'' served less as a military base and more as a political and economic capital for the shogunate government and domains of feudal lords. This shift was a result of the lack of warfare throughout the Edo period and the fact that most of the Han lords were occasionally transferred from one domain to another and thus had little attachment to the city per se (although crop yields remained matters of attention). Geographical locations that emphasized the castle's defensive abilities did not necessarily offer good access, and in many cases, as cities increasingly became trade centers, they abandoned their castles and relocated their government base in Jin'ya. The population of a ''jōkamachi'', of which nearly 300 existed, is varied. There are large-sized ''jōkamachi'' such as

Kanazawa is the capital of Ishikawa Prefecture in central Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 466,029 in 203,271 households, and a population density of 990 persons per km2. The total area of the city was . Etymology The name "Kanazaw ...

and

Sendai is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Miyagi Prefecture and the largest city in the Tōhoku region. , the city had a population of 1,098,335 in 539,698 households, making it the List of cities in Japan, twelfth most populated city in Japan. ...

with approximately 120,000 residents, samurai and merchants combined, while there are small-sized ''jōkamachi'' like Kameda in the Tohoku area with around 4,000 people. In many cases, the population is somewhere around 10,000.

Urban structure

The design of a ''jōkamachi'' aimed to stimulate commerce by reworking the closest main road to pass through the city so that traffic occurs within the ''jōka''. The main road passed through the front of the castle rather than the back to demonstrate the power of the authority, regardless of geographical concerns that might exist. ''Jōkamachi'' incorporated various ideas to strengthen the city's defense. To prevent invasions, it cleverly used rivers and other terrains, dug moats, built earth mounds and stone walls, and sometimes constructed heavy gateways like Masugata gates if the city was deemed strategically important. Inside the ''jōka'', houses were tightly located on either side of the main street to make it harder to directly view the castle, and roads were cranked or had dead ends to elongate the route to the castle. Smaller sections of the city built fences and wooden gates, shutting them at night with guards to ward off intruders. Moats were also used as canals and played a large role in distribution of goods. These cities tended to exist around river terraces in eastern Japan and deltas facing the ocean in western Japan, while cities like Hikone, Zeze, and Suwa are adjacent to a lake as part of the "lake type" ''jōkamachi''. Within a ''jōkamachi'', smaller districts like Samurai-machi, Ashigaru-machi, Chōnin, and Tera-machi surrounded the castle. A Samurai-machi is a district for samurai's compounds also known as Samurai-yashiki. In principle, higher-ranked vassals owned a compound closer to the castle. Modern towns with names like Sange, Kamiyashiki-machi, Shitayashiki-machi are descendants of Samurai-machi. People at a lower status like

Ashigaru were peasant infantry employed by the warlords of Japan to supplement the samurai in their armies. The first known reference to ''ashigaru'' was in the 14th century, but it was during the Ashikaga shogunate (Muromachi period) that the use of ' ...

were often forced to live at the outer rim of Chōnin districts. Today, towns with names like Banchō, Yuminochō, and Teppochō tend to be what were originally Ashigaru-machi. Chōnin-chi (Chonin district) is a district that lay outside Samurai-machi for merchants and craftsmen. Villagers who lived near the ''jōkamachi'' resided in Chonin-chi when they moved in. Merchants and craftsmen were allocated according to their occupation. Towns today with names like Gofuku-machi ("apparel town"), Aburaya-cho ("oil town"), Daiku-machi ("carpenter town"), Kaji-machi ("blacksmith town"), and Kōya-chō ("dye-shop town") are remnants of Chōnin-chi. Chōnin-chi was smaller in land size per family compared to Samurai-machi and were tightly aligned along the streets. This is why a Chōnin house had a narrow entrance and great depth and was called an "eel's nest". It had two floors, but the second floor was used as a storeroom to avoid looking down at the feudal lord. Tera-machi was placed on the outer rim of the ''jōkamachi'' and formed an array of large

temples A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

. It contributed to reinforcing the city's defense.

Modern presence

In Japan today, more than half of its cities with a population of over 100,000 are former ''jōkamachi''. Their appearances have changed through great fires, war damage, and urban development. Cities with any signs of the original ''jōkamachi'' are decreasing, and those that have preserved the entire area are very few. However, many former ''jōkamachi'' have preserved remnants of the old city design, albeit partly, and cities with streets originally designed to hamper foreign intruders are indeed causing traffic congestion today. Modern cities often have other traces of ''jōkamachi'', such as former chōnin-chi districts that still function as the city center as well as festivals and traditions that have continued since the ''jōkamachi'' era. Cities that have kept its design from before the Edo period are often called Sho-kyoto ("small Kyoto"). Cities with remnants of the Edo period are sometimes called Ko-edo ("small Edo").

History

Urban structure

Modern presence

References

Further reading