OSAKA CASTLE

Osaka, Japan

Osaka Castle is one of Japan's most famous castles, and played a major role in the unification of Japan during the 16th century of the Azuchi-Momoyama period. Construction of Osaka Castle started in 1583, on the former site of the Ishiyama Honganji Temple. That temple had been destroyed by Oda Nobunaga, a feudal war lord, 13 years earlier. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Nobunaga’s successor, intended the castle to become the center of a new, unified Japan, under his rule. However, a few years after his death in 1615, Tokugawa Hidetada, another war lord, attacked and destroyed the castle which ended the Toyotomi lineage. Osaka Castle was rebuilt by Tokugawa in the 1620s. The main castle tower was struck by lightning in 1665 and burned down. It was not until 1931 that the present steel and concrete reconstruction of the castle was built. Major renovation gave the castle new shine in 1997. The castle is situated on a plot of land roughly one-half mile square. It is built on two raised platforms of landfill, supported by sheer walls of cut rock, all surrounded by a moat. The central castle building is five stories on the outside and eight stories on the inside. The tall stone foundation walls protected occupants from sword-bearing attackers.

One of my favorite memories was a chance meeting with an Osaka Rotarian architect at the Convention. He was able to arrange a meeting between my son, an architectural student, and Tadao Ando, an internationally famed architect working in Osaka. A few days later, I got away for a day to do this sketch while the architect son was visiting Tokyo, and my wife and younger son were at Universal Studios in Osaka. An older Japanese lady sat beside me while I was working, and gave consistent nods of approval.